On behalf of himself and Craig Turchi, NREL’s Mark Mehos accepts the SolarPACES Lifetime Achievement Award from Gilles Flamant, Chair of SolarPACES
On the closing day of SolarPACES 2025 in Almeria, NREL’s Mark Mehos and Craig Turchi were jointly recognized with the Lifetime Achievement Award for transformative leadership in advancing the commercialization of concentrating solar power.
Mehos, now Principal Engineer Emeritus at NREL, fostered international collaboration pioneering thermal energy storage integration, leading the development and analysis of CSP systems, establishing internationally recognized best practices and modeling standards. His landmark studies documenting CSP industry lessons and essential analyses quantified the operational and economic value of CSP with thermal storage in renewable-heavy grid scenarios.
Turchi, Principal Engineer at NREL, is recognized for his technical and managerial leadership across multi-disciplinary CSP research, blending scientific rigor, systems-level analysis, and technical mentorship. He delivered major innovations in heat transfer, hybrid systems, and techno-economic modeling, integrating advanced cycles such as supercritical CO₂ into widely adopted industry analysis tools like NREL’s System Advisor Model and SolTrace. His mentorship and strategic vision have strengthened both U.S. and global CSP initiatives.
Their influential leadership and publications have informed CSP deployment strategies and policy globally.
Further information:
Mark Mehos
Craig Turchi
