Another solar project – CSP
When most people think of energy generated by the sun, they think of solar panels on rooftops. But one of the most promising solar projects to deliver large amounts of solar power is concentrated solar power (CSP), which harnesses the sun’s heat for thermal energy production in highly arid or desert environments.
The first CSP projects date to the 1960s in Europe and 1980s in the U.S. The concept got a lot of press recently when the nascent Desertec Industrial Initiative (DII) unveiled its plan to transport solar power from North Africa to Europe. DII’s proposal highlights the potential for CSP worldwide, including throughout a large swath of North America.
Of the four types of CSP technologies, parabolic troughs are the most mature and are commercially proven, according to a joint 2009 report from Greenpeace, the European Solar Thermal Electricity Association and the International Energy Agency’s SolarPACES.
Launched in July 2009 by 12 European companies, DII was founded as a limited company October 30, 2009 with Paul van Son, a Belgium energy executive, as its first CEO. Physicist Max Schoen, who founded Desertec (now Desertec Foundation) and is current head of the DII supervisory board, often cites the fact that “within six hours deserts receive more energy from the sun than humankind consumes in a year.” The foundation date came a year after the 43 participants of the Union for the Mediterranean summit under French and Egypt leadership signed the Mediterranean Solar-Plan (MSP).
Plans for the transmission infrastructure are currently being discussed — about which kind of line to construct, a representative of The European Renewable Energy Council told The Faster Times , but an existing transmission cable between Morroco and Spain wouldn’t be sufficient to transport energy from CSP. The representative didn’t know how much the EU would pay for the transmission line, but she did say that the EU will fund a maximum of 50 percent of CSP projects in Europe or North Africa, involving a European company. The Desertec website provides an overview of the concept and proposed transmission lines.
Skeptics doubt whether solar from North Africa can meet a substantial portion of Europe’s energy mix by 2020 or 2050 as DII hopes. And they point out environmental barriers, such as sandstorms, and terror threats, but proponents say these hazards can be overcome and that the project will stem the tide of illegal migration to Europe from Africa by creating jobs and providing local energy. Further, they say, it could establish a framework for water battles since the process involves water desalination.
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has fast-tracked plans to develop federal lands for solar. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told Congress in January that 128 applications for utility-scale projects are under review by the Bureau of Land Management.
Nine plants were constructed in the Mojave desert in California by Israeli-American company Luz between 1984 and 1991, according to the CSP report, and Acciona is planning a 64 MW project called Nevada One that will produce 130 GWh per year. In Spain, the Andasol and Solnova projects in construction will together provide 250 MW of capacity. The largest single parabolic trough installation yet proposed is called Solana and is planned for a site in Nevada. More than 14 more projects of their type are proposed since the introduction of a sufficient feed-in tariff (FiT), which aims to achieve grid parity.
On the whole, prospects for CSP are good: The cost is dropping — at about 15 US cents per KWh for solar generated electricity at sites with very good solar radiation, with predicted ongoing costs as low as 8 cents per KWh in some circumstances, such that CSP is becoming competitive with conventional, fossil-fuelled peak and mid-load power stations, according to the joint CSP report.
source: TheFasterTimes.com
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