MAY 28

A new study by Greenpeace International, the European Solar Thermal Electricity Association and the International Energy Agency considers three different potential scenarios for concentrated solar power's (CSP) growth over the next few decades. In the third and most aggressive scenario, we could see CSP generating 25 percent of the world's electricity by 2050.

The scenario includes increased investment in the technology to $29 billion a year by 2015 and $243 billion a year by 2050. These investments would lead to installed CSP plant capacity of 1,500 GW by 2050. The second scenario saw more modest investment increases and a total capacity of 830 GW by 2050, still an impressive 12 percent of the world's energy needs. The first scenario assumed no investment increases at all, with CSP making up only 0.2 percent of the world's energy.

The technology has been taking off recently. Spain alone has 50 projects in the works and will be generating 2 GW from CSP by 2015. Worldwide, CSP currently makes up 436 MW and investments in the technology will reach about $2.8 billion this year. Based on current global plans, by 2017, close to 20 GW of CSP capacity will be installed. While the dramatic investment increases that the study explores are very unlikely, it's interesting to see the full potential of the technology and maybe it will lead to at least a modest increase in investment and development.

The technology is best fitted for desert regions and the entire sun-belt around the equator, including parts of southern U.S., North Africa, Mexico, China and India could make great use of CSP.

The full study is available here (PDF).

via Guardian

Comments (9)

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Marketing and Sales
written by Michael Lew, May 28, 2009

Send me updates

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written by runescape accounts, May 29, 2009

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written by Mike, May 29, 2009

CSP's are very suited for Arizona with it's 300 days of sunshine yearly. One way to spur development is for more companies to purchase renewable energy credits to offset their energy consumption and subsidize the initial cost of the projects. They don't have to offset 100% of their energy usage, though ideal, but if more companies do it, even a small percentage would help.

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Environmentalists will block it
written by Jay Tee, May 29, 2009

"Concentrated solar power could make up 25% of the world's energy"

....... not if Diane Feinstein has anything to do with it.

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written by Shawn, May 29, 2009

Solar energy was in discussion from quite a long time. But the problem was just overlooking the brighter side of this for of energy as everyone gives much more importance to nuclear energy and energy produced by fuels.

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written by Fred, July 02, 2009

Solar power should be embraced all over

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written by Fred, July 24, 2009

thats a lot of concentrated power!

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written by buy rs accounts, August 31, 2009

Hey, your posts have inspired me! - I love the way you directly get to the point, and then work out- wards. I’ve been trying to do figure out what I want to say about ,that would allow me to do exactly the same thing.

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Driven all by levelized costs
written by davea0511, October 19, 2009

How many people would use a cell phone if you had to buy 25 years of service upfront? Nobody. CSP plants are similar ... it's a huge upfront investment, but over 25 years it's on par with coal, even cheaper in many cases because it produced energy only when it's most needed: hot sunny days.

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