Concentrated solar power, or CSP, is a pretty extraordinary technology; it uses an array of mirrors to focus the sun’s energy onto a central tower, where the heat is then turned into electricity. There are some estimates that CSP could provide a quarter of the world’s electricity needs by 2050. But there’s one major setback: cost. Current CSP projects, such as Ivanpah in California are massive in scale and require expensive materials installed by a large skilled labor force. But a team at one South African university is hoping they can change this with the creation of “plonkable” CSP technology that is cheap and easy to install.
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