Greenpeace: Time to concentrate on solar future

After wind and traditional photovoltaic technology, concentrating solar power (CSP) is now the third multibillion-dollar clean power sector, according to a study from industry players and environmental group Greenpeace.

Launched this week, the Global CSP Outlook 2009 study sets out an ambitious case for the potential of the technology, which its backers claim could meet up to seven per cent of the world's projected power needs by 2030 and potentially 25 per cent by 2050.

"We now are delighted to say 'CSP has taken off', is about to step out of the shadow of other renewable technologies and can establish itself as the third-biggest player in the sustainable power generation industry," said Dr Christoph Richter, executive secretary of solar research organisation IEA SolarPACES, which helped develop the study along with the European Solar Thermal Electricity Association.

CSP systems produce heat or electricity using hundreds of mirrors to concentrate the sun’s rays to a temperature typically between 400 and 1,000ºC. Individual CSP plants are now normally between 50MW and 280MW in size, but could be larger still, the report states.

"Solar power plants are the next big thing in renewable energy," said Sven Teske, renewable energy director at Greenpeace International and co-author of the report. "After the wind industry took off in the mid 1990s and the solar photovoltaic technology started its boom about five years ago, CSP is now the third multibillion-dollar industry for clean power generation."

The report claims CSP has expanded over the past five years but the technology was responsible for providing only 436MW of the world’s electricity generation at the end of 2008. New projects, mostly in Spain, will add at least another 1,000MW by about 2011, the report states.

"Between 1985 and 1991, 354MW of capacity of CSP plants were installed in California. This, plus intensive research and development during the past 15 years, makes CSP even more efficient and is the foundation for the take-off of this technology," added Richter.

To help CSP grab a larger slice of the world's power generation needs, Greenpeace and the solar industry are calling for a guaranteed sale price for electricity. "Feed-in tariffs have been the most successful incentives for the development of renewable power worldwide. Close co-operation between Europe, the Middle East and North Africa for technology and economic development needs to be put in place," the organisations said in a statement.

Despite the onset of global recession, the CSP industry is growing rapidly with 1.2GW of new capacity currently under construction and another 13.9GW scheduled to be constructed by 2014, according to a study from Emerging Energy Research.