U.S. National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) Maps of Average U.S. Daily Solar Energy:

Energy Direct from Sun + Energy from Sky	vs.	Energy Direct from Sun (only)
(link / cached copy)		(link / cached copy

Papers cited in lecture notes or used in their preparation:

Overview Papers & Tutorials:

Concentrated Solar Power Projects (with linked lists by country, project name, technology and status, U.S. National Renewable Energy Lab - NREL (link / cached copy of homepage)

2014: the Year of Concentrating Solar Power, U.S. Department of Energy (link / cached copy)

Concentrating Solar Power, Solar Energy Industries Association - SEIA (link / cached copy)

Concentrating Solar Power - Technology Brief, International Renewable Energy Agency - IRENA, 2013 (link / cached copy)

Concentrating Solar Power, Weinstein et al., Chemical Reviews 115, pp. 12797-12838 (2015) (link / cached MIT copy)

Technology Fundamentals: Solar Thermal Power Plants, Volker Quaschning, Renewable Energy World 6, pp. 109-113 (2003) (link / cached copy)

Solar Thermal Plants - Power and Process Heat, Riffelmann et al., 6th International Summer School, Klagenfurt (Österreich), July 24 - August 4, 2000 (link / cached copy)

Solar Thermal CSP Technology, M. Romero & J. Gonzalez-Aguilar, Wires - Energy and Environment 3(1), pp. 42-59 (2013) (link / cached copy)

Solar Thermal Power Plants - Basics, U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2019 (link / cached copy)

Estimating the Value of Utility-Scale Solar Technologies in California Under a 40% Renewable Portfolio Standard, Jorgenson et al., U.S. National Renewable Energy Lab 2014 (link / cached copy)

Solar Thermal: Which Technology Is Best?, M. Kanellos, GreenTech Media, April 2009 (link / cached copy)

Review Talks:

Concentrated Solar Power and Thermal Storage, Prof. Nick Jelley, Physics Dept., University of Oxford (2015) (link / cached copy)

Academic Reviews (more data & detail / fewer explanations & figures + likely to be behind a paywall):

A Review of Solar Thermal Technologies, Thirugnanasambandam et al., Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 14, pp. 312-22 (2010) (link)

A Review of Thermal Collectors and Thermal Energy Storage in Solar Thermal Applications, Tian et al., Applied Energy 104, pp. 538-53 (2013) (link)

State of the Art on High Temperature Thermal Energy Storage for Power Generation - Part 1: Concepts, Materials and Modellization, Gil et al., Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 14, pp. 31-55 (2010) (link)

Thermal Energy Storage Technologies and Systems for Concentrating Solar Power Plants, Kuravi et al., Progress in Energy & Combustion Science, 39, pp. 285-319 (2013) (link)

Exergetic and Environmental Life Cycle Assessment Analysis of Concentrated Solar Power Plants, Ehtiwesh et al., Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews 56, pp. 145-55 (2016) (link)

NOVEL SOLAR THERMAL:

Solar Chimneys / Solar Updraft Towers:

Solar Updraft Tower - Wikipedia (link / cached copy)

A Review of Solar Chimney Power Generation Technology, A. Dhahri & A. Omri, Int. J .Eng. & Adv. Tech. 2(3), pp. 1-17 (2013) (link / cached copy)

Solar Chimneys Can Convert Hot Air to Energy - But Is Funding a Mirage?, T.K. Grose, National Geographic, April 2014 (link / cached copy)

Historic and Recent Progress in Solar Chimney Power Plant Enhancing Technologies, Al-Kayiem et al., Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 58, pp. 1269-92 (2016) (link)

Solar Downdraft Towers:

Energy Tower (Downdraft), Wikipedia (link / cached copy)

Solar Thermal Power Technologies - B.J. Groenendaal, VLEEM Project,2002 (link / cached copy)

Solar Wind Energy Tower, SolarWindEnergyTower.com (link / cached copy)

Solar Parabolic Dishes / Stirling Engines:

Solar Dish Collector used in a Solar Hot Water System, Alternate Energy Tutorials (link / cached copy)

Maricopa Solar Project, U.S. National Renewable Energy Lab - NREL (link / cached copy)

Solar Parabolic Dish Stirling Engine System Design, Simulation, and Thermal Analysis, Hafez et al., Energy Conversion & Management 126, pp. 60-75 (2016) (link)

MAINSTREAM SOLAR THERMAL:

Concentration Scheme / Receiver Designs:

Solar Towers / Heliostat Mirrors:

Solar Power Tower - Wikipedia (link / cached copy)

Heliostat - Wikipedia (link / cached copy)

The Science behind Heliostats and Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Heliostats, L. Wood, Helioscsp.com, June 2013 (link / cached copy)

Concentrating Solar Power, Weinstein et al., Chemical Reviews 115, pp. 12797-12838 (2015) (link / cached MIT copy)

Concentrating Solar Power Technologies: Present Status and Outlook, Boretti et al., Nonlinear Engineering 8, pp. 10-31 (2019) (link / cached copy)

Review of High-Temperature Central Receiver Designs for Concentrating Solar Power, Ho & Iverson, Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews (29), pp. 835-836 (2014) (link / cached copy)

Advances in Central Receivers for Concentrating Solar Applications, C.K. Ho, Solar Energy 152, pp. 38-56 (2017) (link)

New Concentrating Solar Tower Is Worth Its Salt with 24-7 Power, Scientific American, July 2016 (link / cached copy)

Parabolic Mirror Troughs:

Parabolic Troughs - Wikipedia (link / cached copy)

Parabolic Trough Reflector for Solar Thermal System, Alternate Energy Tutorials (link / cached copy)

Dynamic Modelling of a Parabolic Trough Solar Power Plant, Osterholm et al., Proceedings of the 10th International Modelica Conference, March 10-12 (2014), Lund, Sweden (link / cached copy)

Simplified Methodology for Designing Parabolic Trough Solar Power Plants, Ricardo Vasquez Padilla, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of South Florida (2011) (link / cached copy)

Parabolic Trough Technology, Chapter 5, Advanced CSP Teaching Materials, Gunther et al., ENER / MENA (link / cached copy)

Concentrating Solar Power, Weinstein et al., Chemical Reviews 115, pp. 12797-12838 (2015) (link / cached MIT copy)

Review of Solar Parabolic Trough Collector Geometrical and Thermal Analyses, Performance, and Applications, Abdulhamed et al., Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 91, pp. 822-31 (2018) (link)

Andasol Solar Power Station (Europe's 1st parabolic trough commercial plant) - Wikipedia (link / cached copy)

Linear Fresnel Mirrors (including those employing "Direct Molten Salt - DMS" technology):

Design and Analysis of Rooftop Linear Fresnel Reflector Solar Concentrator, Gouthamrai et al., Int. J. Eng. & Innovative Tech 2(11), pp. 66-69 (2013) (link / cached copy)

Analytic Optical Design of a Linear Fresnel Solar Collector with Variable Parameters, Eddhibi et al., J. Mat. Env. Sci. (2017) (link / cached copy)

Concentrating Solar Power, Weinstein et al., Chemical Reviews 115, pp. 12797-12838 (2015) (link / cached MIT copy)

Direct Molten Salt Linear receiver CSP-concepts with MS-TES compared with Direct Steam Generation Linear receiver CSP - Concepts with solid bed TES, Schneider et al., Energy Procedia (2015) (link / cached copy)

Direct Molten Salt (DMS) Concentrated Solar Power Technology, Helioscsp.com, 2016 (link / cached copy)

New Direct Molten Salt Storage Technology Creates a Significant Increase in Power Yield, The Smart Energy Network (link / cached copy)

Novatec Solar, BASF Successfully Commission Solar Thermal Demonstration Plant in Spain, Renewable Energy Focus (link / cached copy)

New Molten Salt Solar Plant Starts Operation, Sun and Wind Energy (link / cached copy)

Concentrated Solar Energy Applications using Fresnel lenses: A Review, Xie et al., Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 15, pp. 2588-2606 (2011) (link)

Heat Transfer Fluids - Water vs. Oil vs. Molten Salt vs. Nanofluid:

Concentrating Solar Power, Weinstein et al., Chemical Reviews 115, pp. 12797-12838 (2015) (link / cached MIT copy)

Heat Transfer Fluids for Concentrating Solar Power Systems – A review, Vignarooban et al., Applied Energy 146, pp. 383-96 (2015) (link)

Advanced Heat Transfer Fluids for Direct Molten Salt Line-Focusing CSP Plants, Bonk et al., Progress in Energy & Combustion Science 67, pp. 69-87 (2018) (link)

Nanofluids in Solar Collectors - Wikipedia (link / cached copy)

Performance Investigation of High Temperature Application of Molten Solar Salt Nanofluid in a Direct Absorption Solar Collector, Karim et al., Molecules 24, p. 285 (2019) (link / cached copy)

Nanofluids for Solar Collector Applications - A Review, Nagarajan et al., Energy Procedia 61, pp. 2416-34 (2014) (link / cached copy)

An Overview on Current Application of Nanofluids in Solar Thermal Collector and its Challenges, Leong et al., Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews 53, pp. 1092-1105 (2016) (link)

HEAT CONVERSION:

Steam Turbines:

Industrial Steam Turbines, Siemens Corp. (link / cached copy)

Steam turbines for CSP plants, Siemens Corp. (link / cached copy)

Stirling Engines:

Stirling Engine - Wikipedia (link / cached copy)

Single Cylinder Stirling Engine, Animated Engines.com (link)

Solar Parabolic Dish Stirling Engine System Design, Simulation, and Thermal Analysis, Hafez et al., Energy Conversion & Management 126, pp. 60-75 (2016) (link)

Thermoelectrics:

How Thermoelectric Generators Work, Alfred Piggott, Applied Thermoelectric Solutions LLC, 24 Oct.2018 (link / cached copy)

Concentrating Solar Power, Weinstein et al., Chemical Reviews 115, pp. 12797-12838 (2015) (link / cached MIT copy)

 

HEAT STORAGE:

Concentrating Solar Power, Weinstein et al., Chemical Reviews 115, pp. 12797-12838 (2015) (link / cached MIT copy)

The Latest in Thermal Energy Storage, A.L. Harvey, Power Magazine, July 2017 (link / cached copy)

24 Hour Solar Energy: Molten Salt Makes It Possible and Prices are Falling Fast, R. Dieterich, Inside Climate News, January 2018 (link / cached copy)

State of the Art on High Temperature Thermal Energy Storage for Power Generation - Part 1: Concepts, Materials and Modellization, Gil et al., Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 14, pp. 31-55 (2010) (link)

Thermal Energy Storage Technologies and Systems for Concentrating Solar Power Plants, Kuravi et al., Progress in Energy and Combustion Science, 39, pp. 285-319 (2013) (link)

 

WATER CONSUMPTION:

Concentrating Solar Power Operations & Maintenance, R. Branke (Fraunhofer Institute), 2nd MENA CSP KIP Workshop 2018 (link / cached copy)

Concentrating Solar Power and Water Issues in the US Southwest, Bracken et al., Joint Inst. for Strategic Energy Analysis & NREL, 2015 (link / cached copy)

Concentrating Solar Power Water Needs and Alternative Cooling Method Impacts, Mark W Lausten, U.S. Department of Energy (link / cached copy)

Water Issues of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Electricity in the U.S. Southwest, N.T. Carter & R.J. Campbell, Congressional Research Service 2009 (link / cached copy)

BIRD KILLS

Why Solar-Thermal Farms are Accurately Called Wing- Toasters – Ivahpah (sic) Offs an Estimated 3,500 Birds a Year, OutrunChange.com, June 2015 (link / cached copy)

California's New Solar Power Plant is Actually a Death Ray that's Incinerating Birds Mid-flight, ExtremeTech.com (2014) (link / cached copy)

No-fly Zone: California Solar Thermal Farm Proves Fatal to Birds, PV Magazine (2014) (link / cached copy)

Solar Plant Likely Killed 3,500 Birds in 1st Year, KCET.org (2015) (link / cached copy)

Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System Avian & Bat Monitoring Plan, H.T. Harvey and Associates (2015) (link / cached copy)

The Impact of Free-Ranging Domestic Cats on Wildlife of the United States, P.P. Marra, Nature Communications (4), p. 1396 (2013) (link / cached copy)

Direct Mortality of Birds from Anthropogenic Causes, Loss et al., Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics (46), pp.99-120 (2015) (link)

The State of the Birds 2014, StateoftheBirds.org (link / cached copy)