Wilson Solarpower Corporation, formally Wilson TurboPower Inc, is developing a Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) system that will be able to operate 24/7, regardless of weather conditions. It has shown under a US Department of energy grant that it has the potential to reach electricity costs under 7 cents/kilowatt-hour. With further development, Wilson has shown that targets of 5-6 cents/kWh may be achievable. Because of its ability to store large amounts of solar heat for non-daytime use, the Wilson system can provide firm, flexible, dispatchable power around the clock.
In addition to its cost and operating advantages, the Wilson System offers significant other advantages over other clean energy technologies. The system uses modular, mass-produced components with minimal on-site deployment costs and few environmental impacts. Wilson System turbines use compressed hot air, instead of making steam from water like most large turbines. Wilson System turbines use conventional fuels such as natural gas or biofuels off-sun when its thermal storage system is depleted to provide fully-dispatchable power 24/7, regardless of weather, which wind and photovoltaic power systems cannot do.
The Wilson CSP system can be sized as small as 300 kWe (kilowatts, for roughly 60-100 US homes) to provide distributed power adjacent to the load while also providing waste heat from the turbines in combined heat and power (CHP) applications. Tens, hundreds or thousands of modules can be combined to provide power at any scale.
