Definition: Operation and maintenance (O&M) costs represent the annual expenditures required to operate and maintain a CSP plant over its lifetime, including items noted in the Summary of Technology Innovations by Scenario table above.
Base Year: FOM is assumed to be $68/kW-yr until 2021. Variable O&M is approximately $4.20/MWh until 2021 and $3.60/MWh after that (Kurup and Turchi 2015).
Future Years: Future FOM is assumed to decline to $52/kW-yr by 2030 in the Moderate Scenario (i.e., approximately a 25% drop) and approximately $41/kW-yr by 2030 in the Conservative Scenario based on DOE investments that are likely to help to lower costs (DOE 2012).
Use the following table to view the components of operating expenditures.
The following references are specific to this page; for all references in this ATB, see References.
DOE (2012). SunShot Vision Study. (No. DOE/GO-102012-3037). U.S. Department of Energy. https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy12osti/47927.pdf
Kurup, Parthiv, & Turchi, Craig. (2015). Parabolic Trough Collector Cost Update for the System Advisor Model (SAM). (No. NREL/TP-6A20-65228). National Renewable Energy Laboratory. https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy16osti/65228.pdf
Developed with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.