The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is conducting two studies to examine how best to integrate solar steam with existing combined cycle (natural gas) and coal-fired power plants. A power plant in Florida broke ground not long ago on a pioneering example of this technology, but it might encourage more utilities to cosider following their lead if there’s solid, accessible data on the pros and cons of doing so. The goal is to integrate solar so that the power load remains constant, as consistency contributes vastly to efficiency, and thus to cost-effectiveness, for power production on this scale.

For more on the technology and EPRI’s studies, visit Control Engineering.