Spring 2023 Solar Industry Update slide image

Spring 2023 Solar Industry Update

Capacity Factor 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 2014 Source: EIA, Form 923. U.S. CSP Project Generation Performance, 2014-2022 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 SEGS III-IX (Trough) Nevada Solar One (Trough) Genesis (Trough) Solana (Trough+6 hours storage) Mojave (Trough) -Tonopah (Tower+10 hours storage) -Ivanpah (Tower) While it took a few years to optimize the operation of the five U.S. CSP plants brought online from 2013-2015, four of them now generally perform better than when they began operation. - Annual weather variation also caused some of the differences in annual production. - Tonopah continues to have, however produced power for seven months of the year in 2022 - the most since 2018. In September and October it reported an average capacity factor of 29%. Absolute capacity factor is not necessarily the best metric for performance as plants can be designed and operated differently. NREL 16
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