Jul 1, 2009
Concentrating solar power is ripe for exploitationAn extensive study of prospects for concentrating solar power (CSP) has concluded that the technology could meet as much as 25% of the world's electricity demand by 2050 and employ as many as 2 million people. Experts agree that engineering challenges to its widespread implementation have been overcome and that the remaining barriers are political.
The investigation, undertaken by industry association European Solar Thermal Electricity Association (ESTELA), Greenpeace International and SolarPACES, an international expert group, describes three possible market development paths for the technology and assesses the likely growth for each one. The scenarios, outlined in the report Concentrating Solar Power Global Outlook 09, are as follows: no change from the current pattern of uptake; moderate additional investment resulting in growth to a worldwide power output of 830 GW by 2050; and significant investment so that CSP grows quickly, resulting in an output of 1500 GW by 2050.
The report concludes that for CSP to go mainstream, "stable green pricing" incentives are needed to bridge the initial gap between CSP electricity generation costs and generation costs from existing methods. This approach has already had a measurable impact in Spain where a policy of feed-in tariffs for renewable energy means that the country now has four CSP plants in operation with another 15 under construction.
"Governments and industry ... must now put the measures in place to usher in the maximum amount of concentrating solar power possible," the report recommends.
Gerry Wolff, coordinator of DESERTEC-UK, the UK branch of the DESERTEC Foundation – which promotes the implementation of a CSP-focused renewable energy grid across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EUMENA) – agrees that the projections are feasible. "If, as many now believe, CO2 emissions must be cut by 100% by 2050, then there must be a massive expansion of renewable sources of power and CSP is one of the most promising of the available technologies," he told environmentalresearchweb.
Wolff agrees that changes are needed in international and national regulatory and legal frameworks for CSP to take off, suggesting that resistance to this comes from "inertia built into [existing] rules, which are complicated and international," combined with suspected behind-the-scenes lobbying activities on the part of incumbent industries.
The DESERTEC group would like to see governments removing subsidies for established power sources – ensuring that a proper price is paid for CO2 – and establishing a single market for electricity throughout Europe or even EUMENA.
Even without these measures, Wolff senses a bullish mood in CSP circles about the technology's prospects; it is attracting growing numbers of endorsements and is being developed at many locations worldwide, including in Iran, India and China. According to DESERTEC-UK's analysis, CSP is cheaper than nuclear power when environmental and hidden costs are taken into account, probably already cheaper than electricity from "clean" coal, and likely to become one of the cheapest sources of electricity throughout Europe. New CSP plants can be built in three years or less.
And although it only generates in full sunshine there are established energy storage methods that allow it to deliver power 24 hours a day. "With heat storage and the use of gas or biofuels as a back-up source, CSP plants can deliver power on demand, day or night," said Wolff.
The requirement that plants are sited in consistently sunny areas makes CSP suited to desert regions; advances in long-distance, low-loss electricity distribution using High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) mean that it is now technically and economically feasible for power from such regions to be transported to inhabited areas.
"HVDC transmission lines are already in use in many parts of the world," pointed out Wolff.
"It would be a very welcome development if politicians would simply decide that all new power plants should be for renewable sources of electricity," he added. "That decision would ensure that the world's electricity supplies would be completely decarbonised within about 30–40 years!"
About the authorVanessa Spedding is a contributing editor to environmentalresearchweb.
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