Estimating the Capacity Value of Concentrating Solar Power Plants: A Case Study of the Southwestern United States

We estimate the capacity value of concentrating solar power (CSP) plants without thermal energy storage in the south-western U.S. Our results show that CSP plants have capacity values that are between 45% and 95% of maximum capacity, depending on their location and configuration. We also examine the sensitivity of the capacity value of CSP to a number of factors and show that capacity factor-based methods can provide reasonable approximations of reliability-based estimates.