On October 24, the 20th China Renewable Energy Conference — CSP Sub-conference was held at the Shaoxing International Convention and Exhibition Center. Over one hundred experts, scholars, industry representatives, young researchers, and members of the Solar Thermal Power Committee of Chinese Renewable Energy Society gathered to engage in in-depth exchanges on technological innovation, engineering applications, and coordinated industrial development of concentrated solar power (CSP), advancing the industry toward a new stage of grid parity and large-scale development.
Image: Scene of the branch session
The opening ceremony and keynote reports were chaired by Professor Xiao Gang of Zhejiang University and Vice President Ling Xiang of Nanjing Tech University. In his address, Wang Zhifeng, Chairman of the Solar Thermal Power Committee of Chinese Renewable Energy Society and a researcher at the Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, noted that China has clear development goals for CSP and must continue to strengthen industry-academia-research collaboration and international cooperation. Drawing on international project experience, he suggested that domestic project applications should emphasize supporting funds, cross-institutional collaboration, and engineering verification, while actively exploring interdisciplinary innovations such as CSP combined with medical engineering, to support the goal of large-scale CSP deployment by 2030.
Image: Chairs of the opening ceremony and keynote session
The conference featured five major sections: CSP systems, solar collection technology, thermal energy storage technology, journal exchanges, and a special session for graduate students, comprising 19 oral reports and 8 posters. Participants covered universities, research institutes, and enterprises across the industry chain, forming a typical industry-academia-research integrated exchange platform.
Image: Keynote speakers, oral presenters, and journal presentation experts
Industry experts shared the latest progress on key topics including large-capacity CSP plants, industrial policies for the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the economics of molten-salt tower plants, calcium-based thermochemical energy storage, and next-generation molten salt materials. The graduate student session showcased cutting-edge research achievements in areas such as reactor modeling, receiver simulation, and hybrid wind-solar-CSP system configuration. Poster presentations focused on technical achievements including heliostats and heat transfer optimization of collector tubes. As summarized by Professor Wei Jinjia, enterprise reports were grounded in real-world power generation scenarios, raising genuine industry problems and sharing frontier achievements, thereby charting the direction for university research efforts. Industrial demand drives the implementation of scientific research, while scientific innovation in turn feeds back into industrial iteration—creating a two-way empowerment and deep linkage between industry and academia.
Image: Researcher Tang Zhongfeng chairing the graduate student session
A concurrent brainstorming workshop on CSP research projects, chaired by Researcher Lei Dongqiang, was also held. Attendees presented studies on policies supporting the large-scale development of CSP and on techno-economic assessments of CSP technologies. Free discussions were organized into two groups—concentration/solar collection and heat storage/exchange—to identify technical challenges and refine project frameworks. Eligible projects may apply for approval, with funding of RMB 50,000–60,000 per project, primarily supporting the organization of scientific and technological problem discussions, preliminary work for member institutions applying for national projects at various levels, and collaborative product development.
Image: Researcher Lei Dongqiang chairing the CSP research project brainstorming workshop
Image: Professor Wei Jinjia delivering the concluding remarks
In his concluding remarks, Professor Wei Jinjia stated that the conference stimulated a full exchange of ideas, enabling participants to update their understanding of industry technologies, break away from conventional thinking, and generate numerous innovative ideas with practical implementation value. Going forward, all parties will deepen long-term industry-academia-research cooperation, promote multi-disciplinary technological integration, and work to translate the innovative ideas generated at the conference into tangible results—building a high-quality exchange platform for CSP technology iteration and engineering implementation.