Dispatchable concentrated Solar-to-X energy solution for high penetration of renewable energy

Current energetic infrastructures are inefficient and hardly capable of integrating a large share of intermittent renewable energy sources. Carbon-neutral and high efficiency energy production adapted to local demands would be a breakthrough.

SOLARX integrates 3 high concentration solar technologies and AI based smart resource management, to produce - either directly with high efficiencies or through storage stages for maximizing revenues - mainly electricity, heat for storage and/or SHIP and green H2 or Syngas in a carbon neutral way. Three Key Technological Elements will be developed: a smart solar resource management algorithm which aims to meet local instantaneous energy demands, a high efficiency CPV receiver and a carbon negative bi-energy H2 receiver.

SOLARX’s main goal is to demonstrate the technical, economic and social relevance, at the laboratory scale, of the synergetic efficient production of heat, electricity and H2 from solar resource in a single facility, considering energy demands and market prices for a wide range of locations and application scenarios. SOLARX global assessment will demonstrate its role as a Game-changing RES within the framework of future implementation in a carbon-negative energy system. SOLARX will also provide power-to-X for larger integration of intermittent energy sources into the electric grid.

The high efficiency concentration technologies allow to reduce the environmental impacts with respect to current technologies, as LCA study will demonstrate. Also, social acceptance and socioeconomic impacts will be assessed, on the base of, among others, previous high concentration experiences. The regulatory frameworks will be considered within the roadmap towards the technology commercialization and policy recommendations will be published.

The share of SOLARX in the SHIP, electricity and renewable H2 global market by 2050 is expected to be 2-5%, 2-5% and 1-3%, respectively, while reducing by 1.5 GtCO2/year the emissions.