CPV 2011: Solar's Dark Horse Comes on Strong

CPV 2011:  Solar’s Dark Horse Comes on Strong

According to a recent report by GreenTech Media, “PV is now cheaper than CSP on a levelized cost basis, and will reduce its costs faster than CSP going forward.”  In addition, PV continues to gain traction in the distributed generation market, where CSP cannot compete.  These two factors, plus the ongoing need to meet RPS mandates, are driving utilities to choose CPV technology: witness the 30MW CPV solar plant now planned for Colorado. How much do analysts predict the CPV market will grow over the next few years? How is the water/energy crisis impacting large scale PV deployment decisions, and what have been the benefits for utilities which have rolled out CPV systems over the past year?