The European COOPERANT project participated in a collaborative online workshop dedicated to high-temperature Concentrated Solar Power (CSP), organized in partnership with the SUNSON project and the broader CSP Sisterhood Community.
The virtual event brought together leading scientific experts, technology providers, and European researchers to address key technical bottlenecks and discuss innovative strategies for improving the efficiency, dispatchability, and industrial integration of solar thermal energy.
Collaborative Innovation Across Six European Projects
The workshop highlighted the importance of inter-project collaboration in driving European leadership in clean energy technology. COOPERANT presented alongside five sister Horizon Europe initiatives — ASTERIX-CAESAR, ABRAYTCSPFUTURE, SUNSON, PYSOLO, and BLAZETEC — with each project sharing its unique approach to advancing solar thermal systems.
Key topics and technical discussions focused on:
- High-Temperature Performance: Overcoming material durability and thermal stress challenges in solar receivers operating at extreme temperatures.
- Efficient Heat Transfer & Storage: Enhancing heat transfer fluids and thermal energy storage (TES) to achieve continuous, dispatchable clean energy.
- Industrial Decarbonization: Exploring how high-temperature CSP can replace fossil fuels in heavy industrial processing and support green hydrogen production.
- Cost Reduction & Scalability: Improving system economics to accelerate commercial deployment across European energy markets.
Unlocking the Advantage of Thermal Storage
During the sessions, panel experts emphasized that high-temperature CSP offers a distinct advantage over standard photovoltaics due to its integrated thermal energy storage capabilities. By increasing operating temperatures, next-generation CSP systems can drive higher-efficiency power cycles and supply reliable, zero-emission heat on demand—even when direct solar radiation is unavailable.