Solar thermal power plants are forecast to undergo a real boom in the coming years and decades. The sunny regions of Asia, the USA, and North Africa provide an almost inexhaustible space potential.
This report on Solar Thermal Energy analyzes the technology, discusses solar thermal plants financing, discusses hybrid solar thermal power plants, and provides profiles of solar thermal companies and case studies. A diagrammatic representation of the value chain and suppliers in the solar thermal industry is included, explaining the solar thermal power process in detail.
This report also analyzes the advantages and challenges facing the solar thermal industry.
Solar thermal power plants are forecast to undergo a real boom in the coming years and decades. The sunny regions of Asia, the USA, and North Africa provide an almost inexhaustible space potential. Experts have long agreed that solar thermal technology will enable the replacement of conventional, fossil fuelled, or nuclear power plants in the long term. Recent studies by Greenpeace and A.T. Kearney confirm the increasing competitiveness.
Solar-thermal electricity (STE) is competitive. Within the next ten years, there will be an opportunity to generate this economically and free of subsidies. In doing so, it will compete with fossil fuels. Moreover, STE represents an increasingly more attractive addition to the renewable energy portfolio, of which it has a relevant share. The thermal solar capacity installed worldwide will ideally reach 100 gigawatts (GW) by 2025. This could create up to 130,000 jobs.
International studies have also announced the continuous rise of solar-thermal power plants. The cost of generating STE electricity can be reduced by up to 30 percent by 2015 and even by more than 50 percent by 2025. As such, solar-thermal electricity can contribute significantly to reaching certain energy and environmental targets, for example the EU’s 20-20-20 goal.
The Future of Concentrating Solar Power Technologies
Solar thermal power generation depends on both a high solar intensity and a large amount of direct incident radiation not scattered by clouds. The best sites are generally in arid, desert regions with high annual sunshine levels. Most of these sites are found between 15º and 40º of latitude either side of the equator.
Features and benefits
– Realize up-to-date competitive intelligence through a comprehensive review of concentrating solar power technologies concepts in power generation.
– Assess the emerging trends in CSP technologies – parabolic troughs, solar towers, parabolic dishes, Fresnel reflectors and energy storage.
– Identify which key trends will offer the greatest growth potential and learn which technology trends are likely to have greater market impact.
– Compare how manufacturers are developing new concentrating solar power technologies.
– Quantify costs of csp technologies, with comparisons against other forms of power generation technology, installation costs, cost of electricity.
Highlights
– While the recent growth in output is promising, solar thermal power plants still provide only a tiny fraction of global power consumption. Total global electricity production in 2008 was 20,169,000GWh. Of this renewable production (mostly from hydropower) accounted for 18.7% and the solar thermal contribution was 0.005%.
– The average energy density reaching the earth’s surface is about 170W/m3 and the greatest, in the region of the Red Sea, is close to 300W/m3.
– Across the region encompassing Africa, southern Europe and Asia, there is potential to generate 7,350TWh/y while the Pacific region could provide a further 2,300TWh/y.
Your key questions answered
– What are the drivers shaping and influencing concentrating solar power technology development in the electricity industry?
– What does concentrating solar power generation cost? What will it cost in the future?
– Which concentrating solar power technology types will be the winners and which the losers in terms of power generated, cost and viability?
– Which concentrating solar power technology types are likely to find favor with manufacturers moving forward?
– Which emerging technologies are gaining in popularity and why?
Key findings:
– While the recent growth in output is promising, solar thermal power plants still provide only a tiny fraction of global power consumption. Total global electricity production in 2008 was 20,169,000GWh. Of this renewable production (mostly from hydropower) accounted for 18.7% and the solar thermal contribution was 0.005%.
– The average energy density reaching the earth’s surface is about 170W/m3 and the greatest, in the region of the Red Sea, is close to 300W/m3.
– Across the region encompassing Africa, southern Europe and Asia, there is potential to generate 7,350TWh/y while the Pacific region could provide a further 2,300TWh/y.
– There are a large number of parabolic trough power plants either under construction or being developed. Many of these are in Spain where around 2,300 MW are under construction.
– The most recent direct steam solar tower plants claim a solar to electrical energy efficiency of 15.5% whereas the first molten salt plant to enter commercial service is expected to have an efficiency of 14%.
