Concentrating Solar Power Global Outlook 09

Our partner ESTELA co-signs this report together with IEA SolarPACES and Greenpeace International.

CSP plants using parabolic troughs are already a reliable and demonstrated technology. Several plants, with an overall installed power close to 2000 MW, are either in construction or in operation, mainly in Spain and the USA. Parabolic trough collectors and heliostat fields have been in operation since the early 80s with proven performance.

CSP plants are dispatchable, and their dispatchability can be enhanced by new storage technologies and/or hybrid concepts using other renewable or conventional fuels. This feature, together with a good forecast ability for solar radiation, addresses the most important drawback of renewables: they are variable, unpredictable and non-dispatchable.

Additionally, dual applications (i.e. electricity and water desalination, electricity and cooling…) might bring important benefits in some specific areas.

In the coming decade, significant deployment of this technology in the sunniest parts of the world is anticipated. The projects currently in construction plus others in the pipeline would reach 15,000 MW on the 2014 horizon. Afterwards, technology maturity and market deployment will have pulled prices down, layng a path to large-scale deployment.

However, some drawbacks have to be addressed, starting with cost. Innovation in systems and components is required, as well as an improvement of the manufacturing technology. On the side of efficiency, there is still room for a significant increase (through higher working temperatures, better receiver performances and so on). Also, the optimum plant size all be bigger than current applications (limited by regulatory or financial reasons). Together with this, the storage performance has to be increased, both in terms of capacity, temperature and cost. Finally, a learning effect in construction and the reduction of O&M costs are expected.