Abstract: Concentrating solar power (CSP) is one of the major technologies for converting sunlight to electricity. It could offer a utility-scale, relatively stable and dispatch-able electricity, as well as combined heat and power supply with a very low environmental impact. With large-scale deployment in the near future, CSP could function as a peak power source to provide ancillary services for wind power, photovoltaic power generation and other intermittent power supply, CSP power plants has a potential to provide the base-load in the long run. Through decades of efforts, the CSP industry is expected to become a mass-deployed renewable energy generation option worldwide over the next decade. The technological research and industry development of CSP in China, however, are lagged far behind. In addition, China hasn't issued any clear incentives for solar thermal power industry, which directly leads to an indefinite postponing of a number of projects.

Key words: concentrating solar power, development status, feed-in tariff, policy