Solar 1./ Concentrated Solar Power, or CSP

Here's a couple of solar concepts that are new to me and which I feel might interest readers of The Fueling Station: 'concentrated solar power,' and leased solar power. I'd be interested to get your feedback as both seem to me to have great potential.

1./ Concentrated Solar Power or CSP is a technology which some believe could hold the long term answer to future electricity power generation.
Better known photo-voltaic solar panels have their limitations, partly due to their cost but also the amount of energy they can generate due to the amount of sun's rays any single panel can collect. But concentrate the rays using a mirror effect and you can greatly increase the efficiency by using that energy thermally.

CSP uses different kinds of mirror configurations to convert the sun's energy into high-temperature heat (ranging from several hundred to several thousand degrees Celsius). The heat energy is then used to generate steam to drive turbines producing electricity.
This is already being done in the Mojave desert in California and the South of Spain (Solucar).
A detailed study by German scientists last year argued that CSP farms in the deserts of north Africa could generate enough power for the whole of Europe.

The US Department of Energy recently expressed interest in CSP.

"CSP's relatively low cost and ability to deliver power during periods of peak demand—when and where we need it—mean that CSP can be a major contributor to the nation's future needs for distributed sources of energy," it said.

Click here to learn more at the DOE's Solar Energy Technologies website.

Click here for an article in The Guardian newspaper.

Click here for the report commissioned by the German government.

Click here to read more on CSP in Spain by fellow blogger The Energy Blog.

- David Adams

Comments

[Frank]

Many experts believe that CSP will be the means by which solar is provided in the traditional centralized generating mechanism employed by utilities. It has a higher capacity factor and is more efficient than other solar technologies.

However, when photovoltaics is integrated into the built environment it provides a distributed form of electricity generation that avoids the losses in transmission and distribution that some estimate to be as high as 30%.

No single solution will be found to our energy problems. A mix of efficiency and renewable energy can go a long way towards building a sustainable energy portfolio.

[Melissa Meehan]

Click here for a map of renewable energy potential:
http://www.ases.org/climatechange/images/map_large.jpg

Note that CSP is concentrated solar power

CAPTION: This U.S. map shows how the various renewable technologies can be deployed around the country. The bar graph on the lower left shows the potential contributions each technology area can make (in terms of carbon displacements in millions of tons of carbon per year in 2030), compared to what will be needed by 2030 to be on the path to achieve reductions of 60% to 80% below today’s levels by mid-century—the target range given by many scientists. Many locations have multiple resources, which cannot be adequately delineated on one map, but separate U.S. maps for each renewable resource are presented in the report.

[David Adams]

Thanks to Frank and Melissa for the extra info. Frank's bottom line is right. The solution is a mix of renewable alternatives.

David

[Gerry Wolff]

The suggestion that transmission losses might be 30% is entirely wrong. With HVDC transmission lines, losses are only about 3% per 1000 km. Electricity may be transmitted from CSP plants in the south western states of the US to any other part with no more than about 10% loss of power.

The TRANS-CSP report commissioned by the government does indeed recommend a wide variety of renewable energy sources, with CSP as part of the mix (see http://www.trec-uk.org.uk/reports.htm)

Further information about concentrating solar power (CSP) may be found at:

http://www.trec-uk.org.uk/index.htm

and

http://www.trecers.net/index.html

[tariq sultan]

until the price of photo-voltaic cell are down and the monopoly of multi firm are invalve the solar energy will not be cheap and the general public can afford it.scientis should invent some meterial (cement / paint )which can be use in building plaza /market .alternate to solar cells.so that ever one can afford it.
TARIQ

[Solar Energy Information]

Thanks a lot for given this post!

[Solar Products]

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