According to EnergyTrend, Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) has a great chance to return to the mainstream market and shine specifically in the field of solar power plants. Data showed that CSP has been greatly applied to the power plant projects in the United States and the Middle East, thus the development of related projects in 2013 will be crucial to the return of CSP.
Due to the fact that no huge power plant projects were implemented, 2012 was a relatively weak year for CSP. However, the situation is about to change. With a capacity of 392MW, the Ivanpah solar power project in California has been executed and will be ready in 2013. The implementation of this project has brought light to the CSP team. As for the investment in large power plants, the environmental assessment is often time-consuming, and CSP technology not only take up massive space, but also cause greater impact on the environment compared with other solar technologies. Therefore, how to balance the demands of each party has become the main issue in related projects. The implementation of Ivanpah solar power project could be another landmark of CSP, and the gathering and analysis of related data such as the environmental impact, power generation efficiency, and cost may expedite the implementation of other CSP projects.