Solar power system

There is a lot of underutilized space in cities and industrial parks, or space that's in a stalled state of re-use, and a simple to deploy, easily removable solar power system would be ideal for this. I don't know if a CSP system fits the bill, though. But, it's for exactly the reasons you cite: lack of a good small scale solution. CSP shows excellent promise for large scale installations, unless advanced thin film PV can beat it, and, even then, large utility scale systems with thermal storage are the only way to go for base load power. But, adding thermal storage to small scale relocatable CSP I wouldn't think would be nearly as easy or as cheap. This means you're back to a low capacity factor type installation at the mercy of the rotation of the planet, and PV offers very good ease of installation there. I think the small to mid-size dish engine concept is viable, as well, but it's unfortunately not as readily available at this time.

I would love to see new ideas in small scale CSP, but I can't quite imagine how it would work such that it would provide an advantage over PV or small dish engine. There are some off the shelf microturbines intended for cogeneration use that would fit the criteria you describe, such as the Capstone Infinity system, which uses an organic Rankine cycle. The IT10 is a 10 kW system and I believe it's around 12 percent efficient, which is pretty typical for ORC systems. So, you could simply combine that with standard trough receivers, and have a nice small CSP system. But, the IT10 will run you about $20K for the turbine and generator sled, and you need a coolant loop and radiators for it, plus the trough receivers for the solar field. Net result is that you'll end up down in a CdTe range of kWh per area production, once you include the optical and thermal losses of the troughs, and it'll cost you more than CdTe. A better approach, other than the Infinia system, would be a CPV system with high efficiency cells. Solfocus, Emcore and Delta all make systems that should work for the application you describe. With a small pad for the tracker mast and a utility shack for the inverter, you'd have a fairly easily installed/deinstalled system. Same could be said for a tracked non-concentrating PV system, but you'll get better yield per footprint with CPV. Similar cost per kWh, but better kWh yield per square meter, so you'd generate more revenue off smaller sites.