INDEX

Concentrated solar power (CSP, also known as concentrating solar power, concentrated solar thermal) systems generate solar power by using mirrors or lenses to concentrate a large area of sunlight into a receiver. Electricity is generated when the concentrated light is converted to heat (solar thermal energy), which drives a heat engine (usually a steam turbine) connected to an electrical power generator or powers a thermochemical reaction.

As of 2021, global installed capacity of concentrated solar power stood at 6.8 GW. The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) maintains a full database of the current state of all CSP plants globally, whether under construction, shut down, or operating. The data includes comprehensive details such as capacity, type of power block components, number of thermal energy storage hours, and turbine sizes.

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) technologies use systems of mirrored concentrators to focus direct beam solar radiation to receivers that convert the energy to high temperature for power generation. There are four main configurations that are commercially available- Parabolic Trough, Linear Fresnel Reflector, Parabolic Dish and Central Receiver Tower – with Parabolic Trough being the most prevalent.

Typically, this heat is transformed to mechanical energy through a steam turbine and then to electricity. CSP has advantages compared to photovoltaic as it can readily incorporate thermal energy storage and/or hybridization to provide dispatchable power. The use of relatively ‘low tech’ manufacturing methods for solar collector fields, together with the use of available steam turbine technologies, makes the prospect of CSP capacity quite feasible to get rapidly scaled up.

SECI plans to undertake the following activities to further the progress of the CSP technology

“India One” is a 1 MW electrical Solar Thermal Power Plant

India One” is a 1 MW electrical Solar Thermal Power Plant with 16 hrs thermal energy storage allowing for round the clock operation. This captive power plant supplies power to Brahma Kumaris headquarters in Abu Road, Rajasthan with total capacity of 25,000 people.

India One” is a 1 MW electrical Solar Thermal Power Plant has been partly funded by Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), Government of Germany within the bilateral “ComSolar” initiative, executed for them through the German development agency, GIZ (Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) and Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India under R&D Scheme.

The key features plus Research and Development achievements at India One Solar Power Plant are as follows:

· 770 numbers of 60. square meter parabolic reflectors with unique static focus design, using special solar grade mirrors with 93% reflectivity and equipped with fully automatic dual axis tracking mechanism to adjust daily and seasonally, to the position of the Sun.

· 770 numbers of indigenously designed cast iron cavity receivers, generating directly superheated steam, up to 450 degrees Celsius temperature and 42 bar pressure. Due to the static design, receivers are cost effective and feature long lifetime with minimum required maintenance.

The 60m2 parabolic reflector by tracking the sun, concentrates the solar rays in the static cast iron receiver. Each receiver which is made out of 3 tons of cast iron acts as thermal energy storage for the night or partial cloudy condition. The cast iron core is surrounded by steam coil, which acts as steam generator by exchanging the heat from iron core to water. The high temperature steam runs through turbine connected to generator that produces electricity. “India One” is a captive, off grid power plant providing power for Shantivan complex at Abu Road.

The technology has been developed in-house and it’s a good example of “Make in India” initiative.

India One Solar Thermal Power Plant got successfully commissioned in the beginning of 2017. It is a good showcase for solar thermal power plants with storage in the world.

Technology Suitable for India

· Relatively simple modular design.

· Indigenous manufacturing.

· Major components available locally.

· Cost-effective technology.

· Easy operation/ maintenance by means of readily available spares.

· Easy to replicate, decentralized fabrication process to create local employment.

· Easy and reliable storage options.

· Reliable in long term operations.

1 MW 35 Acre 2,017

Capacity. Total Area Year Build

BLOCK DIAGRAM

CICRCUIT DIAGRAM

Types of concentrating solar thermal power plants

There are three main types of concentrating solar thermal power systems:

· Linear concentrating systems, which include parabolic troughs and linear Fresnel reflectors

· Solar power towers

· Solar dish/engine systems

Linear concentrating systems

Linear concentrating systems collect the sun's energy using long, rectangular, curved (U-shaped) mirrors. The mirrors focus sunlight onto receivers (tubes) that run the length of the mirrors. The concentrated sunlight heats a fluid flowing through the tubes. The fluid is sent to a heat exchanger to boil water in a conventional steam-turbine generator to produce electricity. There are two major types of linear concentrator systems: parabolic trough systems, where receiver tubes are positioned along the focal line of each parabolic mirror, and linear Fresnel reflector systems, where one receiver tube is positioned above several mirrors to allow the mirrors greater mobility in tracking the sun.

A linear concentrating collector power plant has a large number, or field, of collectors in parallel rows that are typically aligned in a north-south orientation to maximize solar energy collection. This configuration enables the mirrors to track the sun from east to west during the day and concentrate sunlight continuously onto the receiver tubes.

1.1 Parabolic troughs

A parabolic trough collector has a long parabolic-shaped reflector that focuses the sun's rays on a receiver pipe located at the focus of the parabola. The collector tilts with the sun to keep sunlight focused on the receiver as the sun moves from east to west during the day.

Because of its parabolic shape, a trough can focus the sunlight from 30 times to 100 times its normal intensity (concentration ratio) on the receiver pipe, located along the focal line of the trough, achieving operating temperatures higher than 750°F.

Parabolic trough linear concentrating systems are used in one of the longest operating solar thermal power facilities in the world, the Solar Energy Generating System (SEGS) located in the Mojave Desert in California. The facility has had nine separate plants over time, with the first plant in the system, SEGS I, operating from 1984 to 2015, and the second, SEGS II, operating from 1985 to 2015. SEGS III–VII (3–7), each with net summer electric generation capacities of 36 megawatts (MW), came online in 1986, 1987, and 1988. SEGS VIII (8) and IX (9), each with a net summer electric generation capacity of 88 MW, began operation in 1989 and 1990, respectively. SEGS 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 all ceased operation in 2021, leaving only SEGS 9 in operation as of December 31, 2021.

In addition to the SEGS 9, the other parabolic-trough solar thermal electric facilities operating in the United States as of December 2021, and their net summer electric generation capacity, location, and year of initial operation are:

· Solana Generating Station: a 296 MW, two-plant facility with an energy storage component in Gila Bend, Arizona, that started operating in 2013

· Mojave Solar Project: a 275 MW, two-plant facility in Barstow, California, that started operating in 2014

· Genesis Solar Energy Project: a 250 MW, two-plant facility in Blythe, California, that started operating in 2013 and 2014

· Nevada Solar One: a 69 MW plant near Boulder City, Nevada, that started operating in 2007

1.2 Linear Fresnel reflectors

Linear Fresnel reflector (LFR) systems are similar to parabolic trough systems in that mirrors (reflectors) concentrate sunlight onto a receiver located above the mirrors. These reflectors use the Fresnel lens effect, which allows for a concentrating mirror with a large aperture and short focal length. These systems are capable of concentrating the sun's energy to approximately 30 times its normal intensity. Compact linear Fresnel reflectors (CLFR)—also referred to as concentrating linear Fresnel reflectors—are a type of LFR technology that has multiple absorbers within the vicinity of the mirrors. Multiple receivers allow the mirrors to change their inclination to minimize how much they block adjacent reflectors' access to sunlight. This positioning improves system efficiency and reduces material requirements and costs. A demonstration CLFR solar power plant was built near Bakersfield, California, in 2008, but it is currently not operational.

1.3 Solar power towers

A solar power tower system uses a large field of flat, sun-tracking mirrors called heliostats to reflect and concentrate sunlight onto a receiver on the top of a tower. Sunlight can be concentrated as much as 1,500 times. Some power towers use water as the heat-transfer fluid. Advanced designs are experimenting with molten nitrate salt because of its superior heat transfer and energy storage capabilities. The thermal energy-storage capability allows the system to produce electricity during cloudy weather or at night.

The U.S. Department of Energy, along with several electric utilities, built and operated the first demonstration solar power tower near Barstow, California, during the 1980s and 1990s. In 2021, there were two solar power tower facilities operating in the United States:

· Ivanpah Solar Power Facility: a facility with three separate collector fields and towers with a combined net summer electric generation capacity of 393 MW in Ivanpah Dry Lake, California, that started operating in 2013

· Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project: a 110 MW one-tower facility with an energy storage component in Tonapah, Nevada, that started operating in 2015

1.4 Solar Dish/Engines

Solar dish/engine systems use a mirrored dish similar to a very large satellite dish. To reduce costs, the mirrored dish is usually composed of many smaller flat mirrors formed into a dish shape. The dish-shaped surface directs and concentrates sunlight onto a thermal receiver, which absorbs and collects the heat and transfers it to an engine generator. The most common type of heat engine used in dish/engine systems is the Stirling engine. This system uses the fluid heated by the receiver to move pistons and create mechanical power. The mechanical power runs a generator or alternator to produce electricity.

Solar dish/engine systems always point straight at the sun and concentrate the solar energy at the focal point of the dish. A solar dish's concentration ratio is much higher than linear concentrating systems, and it has a working fluid temperature higher than 1,380°F. The power-generating equipment used with a solar dish can be mounted at the focal point of the dish, making it well suited for remote locations, or the energy may be collected from a number of installations and converted into electricity at a central point.

There are no utility-scale solar dish/engine projects in commercial operation in the United States.

History

A legend has it that Archimedes used a "burning glass" to concentrate sunlight on the invading Roman fleet and repel them from Syracuse. In 1973 a Greek scientist, Dr. Ioannis Sakkas, curious about whether Archimedes could really have destroyed the Roman fleet in 212 BC, lined up nearly 60 Greek sailors, each holding an oblong mirror tipped to catch the sun's rays and direct them at a tar-covered plywood silhouette 49 m (160 ft) away. The ship caught fire after a few minutes; however, historians continue to doubt the Archimedes story.

In 1866, Auguste Mouchout used a parabolic trough to produce steam for the first solar steam engine. The first patent for a solar collector was obtained by the Italian Alessandro Battaglia in Genoa, Italy, in 1886. Over the following years, invеntors such as John Ericsson and Frank Shuman developed concentrating solar-powered dеvices for irrigation, refrigеration, and locomоtion. In 1913 Shuman finished a 55 horsepower (41 kW) parabolic solar thermal energy station in Maadi, Egypt for irrigation. The first solar-power system using a mirror dish was built by Dr. R.H. Goddard, who was already well known for his research on liquid-fueled rockets and wrote an article in 1929 in which he asserted that all the previous obstacles had been addressed.

Professor Giovanni Francia (1911–1980) designed and built the first concentrated-solar plant, which entered into operation in Sant'Ilario, near Genoa, Italy in 1968. This plant had the architecture of today's power tower plants with a solar receiver in the center of a field of solar collectors. The plant was able to produce 1 MW with superheated steam at 100 bar and 500 °C. The 10 MW Solar One power tower was developed in Southern California in 1981. Solar One was converted into Solar Two in 1995, implementing a new design with a molten salt mixture (60% sodium nitrate, 40% potassium nitrate) as the receiver working fluid and as a storage medium. The molten salt approach proved effective, and Solar Two operated successfully until it was decommissioned in 1999. The parabolic-trough technology of the nearby Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS), begun in 1984, was more workable. The 354 MW SEGS was the largest solar power plant in the world, until 2014.

No commercial concentrated solar was constructed from 1990 when SEGS was completed until 2006 when the Compact linear Fresnel reflector system at Liddell Power Station in Australia was built. Few other plants were built with this design although the 5 MW Kimberlina Solar Thermal Energy Plant opened in 2009.

In 2007, 75 MW Nevada Solar One was built, a trough design and the first large plant since SEGS. Between 2009 and 2013, Spain built over 40 parabolic trough systems, standardized in 50 MW blocks.

Due to the success of Solar Two, a commercial power plant, called Solar Tres Power Tower, was built in Spain in 2011, later renamed Gemasolar Thermosolar Plant. Gemasolar's results paved the way for further plants of its type. Ivanpah Solar Power Facility was constructed at the same time but without thermal storage, using natural gas to preheat water each morning.

Most concentrated solar power plants use the parabolic trough design, instead of the power tower or Fresnel systems. There have also been variations of parabolic trough systems like the integrated solar combined cycle (ISCC) which combines troughs and conventional fossil fuel heat systems.

CSP was originally treated as a competitor to photovoltaics, and Ivanpah was built without energy storage, although Solar Two had included several hours of thermal storage. By 2015, prices for photovoltaic plants had fallen and PV commercial power was selling for ¹⁄₃ of recent CSP contracts. However, increasingly, CSP was being bid with 3 to 12 hours of thermal energy storage, making CSP a dispatchable form of solar energy. As such, it is increasingly seen as competing with natural gas and PV with batteries for flexible, dispatchable power.

Current technology

CSP is used to produce electricity (sometimes called solar thermoelectricity, usually generated through steam. Concentrated-solar technology systems use mirrors or lenses with tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight onto a small area. The concentrated light is then used as heat or as a heat source for a conventional power plant (solar thermoelectricity). The solar concentrators used in CSP systems can often also be used to provide industrial process heating or cooling, such as in solar air conditioning.

Concentrating technologies exist in four optical types, namely parabolic trough, dish, concentrating linear Fresnel reflector, and solar power tower. Parabolic trough and concentrating linear Fresnel reflectors are classified as linear focus collector types, while dish and solar tower are point focus types. Linear focus collectors achieve medium concentration factors (50 suns and over), and point focus collectors achieve high concentration factors (over 500 suns). Although simple, these solar concentrators are quite far from the theoretical maximum concentration. For example, the parabolic-trough concentration gives about ¹⁄₃ of the theoretical maximum for the design acceptance angle, that is, for the same overall tolerances for the system. Approaching the theoretical maximum may be achieved by using more elaborate concentrators based on nonimaging optics.

Different types of concentrators produce different peak temperatures and correspondingly varying thermodynamic efficiencies, due to differences in the way that they track the sun and focus light. New innovations in CSP technology are leading systems to become more and more cost-effective.

Parabolic trough

A parabolic trough consists of a linear parabolic reflector that concentrates light onto a receiver positioned along the reflector's focal line. The receiver is a tube positioned at the longitudinal focal line of the parabolic mirror and filled with a working fluid. The reflector follows the sun during the daylight hours by tracking along a single axis. A working fluid (e.g. molten salt is heated to 150–350 °C (302–662 °F) as it flows through the receiver and is then used as a heat source for a power generation system. Trough systems are the most developed CSP technology. The Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS) plants in California, the world's first commercial parabolic trough plants, Acciona's Nevada Solar One near Boulder City, Nevada, and Andasol, Europe's first commercial parabolic trough plant are representative, along with Plataforma Solar de Almeria's SSPS-DCS test facilities in Spain.

Enclosed trough

The design encapsulates the solar thermal system within a greenhouse-like glasshouse. The glasshouse creates a protected environment to withstand the elements that can negatively impact reliability and efficiency of the solar thermal system. Lightweight curved solar-reflecting mirrors are suspended from the ceiling of the glasshouse by wires. A single-axis tracking system positions the mirrors to retrieve the optimal amount of sunlight. The mirrors concentrate the sunlight and focus it on a network of stationary steel pipes, also suspended from the glasshouse structure. Water is carried throughout the length of the pipe, which is boiled to generate steam when intense solar radiation is applied. Sheltering the mirrors from the wind allows them to achieve higher temperature rates and prevents dust from building up on the mirrors.

GlassPoint Solar, the company that created the Enclosed Trough design, states its technology can produce heat for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) for about $5 per 290 kWh (1,000,000 BTU) in sunny regions, compared to between $10 and $12 for other conventional solar thermal technologies.

Solar power tower

Ashalim Power Station, Israel, on its completion the tallest solar tower in the world. It concentrates light from over 50,000 heliostats.

The PS10 solar power plant in Andalusia, Spain concentrates sunlight from a field of heliostats onto a central solar power tower.

A solar power tower consists of an array of dual-axis tracking reflectors (heliostats) that concentrate sunlight on a central receiver atop a tower; the receiver contains a heat-transfer fluid, which can consist of water-steam or molten salt. Optically a solar power tower is the same as a circular Fresnel reflector. The working fluid in the receiver is heated to 500–1000 °C (773–1,273 K or 932–1,832 °F) and then used as a heat source for a power generation or energy storage system. An advantage of the solar tower is the reflectors can be adjusted instead of the whole tower. Power-tower development is less advanced than trough systems, but they offer higher efficiency and better energy storage capability. Beam down tower application is also feasible with heliostats to heat the working fluid.

The Solar Two in Daggett, California and the CESA-1 in Plataforma Solar de Almeria Almeria, Spain, are the most representative demonstration plants. The Planta Solar 10 (PS10) in Sanlucar la Mayor, Spain, is the first commercial utility-scale solar power tower in the world. The 377 MW Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, located in the Mojave Desert, is the largest CSP facility in the world, and uses three power towers. Ivanpah generated only 0.652 TWh (63%) of its energy from solar means, and the other 0.388 TWh (37%) was generated by burning natural gas.

Supercritical carbon dioxide can be used instead of steam as heat-transfer fluid for increased electricity production efficiency. However, because of the high temperatures in arid areas where solar power is usually located, it is impossible to cool down carbon dioxide below its critical temperature in the compressor inlet. Therefore, supercritical carbon dioxide blends with higher critical temperature are currently in development.

Dish Stirling

A dish Stirling or dish engine system consists of a stand-alone parabolic reflector that concentrates light onto a receiver positioned at the reflector's focal point. The reflector tracks the Sun along two axes. The working fluid in the receiver is heated to 250–700 °C (482–1,292 °F) and then used by a Stirling engine to generate power. Parabolic-dish systems provide high solar-to-electric efficiency (between 31% and 32%), and their modular nature provides scalability. The Stirling Energy Systems (SES), United Sun Systems (USS) and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) dishes at UNLV, and Australian National University's Big Dish in Canberra, Australia are representative of this technology. A world record for solar to electric efficiency was set at 31.25% by SES dishes at the National Solar Thermal Test Facility (NSTTF) in New Mexico on 31 January 2008, a cold, bright day. According to its developer, Ripasso Energy, a Swedish firm, in 2015 its Dish Sterling system being tested in the Kalahari Desert in South Africa showed 34% efficiency. The SES installation in Maricopa, Phoenix was the largest Stirling Dish power installation in the world until it was sold to United Sun Systems. Subsequently, larger parts of the installation have been moved to China as part of the huge energy demand.

CSP with thermal energy storage

Thermal energy storage and Solar thermal energy

In a CSP plant that includes storage, the solar energy is first used to heat the molten salt or synthetic oil which is stored providing thermal/heat energy at high temperature in insulated tanks. Later the hot molten salt (or oil) is used in a steam generator to produce steam to generate electricity by steam turbo generator as per requirement. Thus solar energy which is available in daylight only is used to generate electricity round the clock on demand as a load following power plant or solar peaker plant.[60][61] The thermal storage capacity is indicated in hours of power generation at nameplate capacity. Unlike solar PV or CSP without storage, the power generation from solar thermal storage plants is dispatchable and self-sustainable similar to coal/gas-fired power plants, but without the pollution. CSP with thermal energy storage plants can also be used as cogeneration plants to supply both electricity and process steam round the clock. As of December 2018, CSP with thermal energy storage plants generation cost have ranged between 5 C/ kWh and 7 c / kWh depending on good to medium solar radiation received at a location. Unlike solar PV plants, CSP with thermal energy storage plants can also be used economically round the clock to produce only process steam replacing pollution emitting fossil fuels. CSP plant can also be integrated with solar PV for better synergy.

CSP with thermal storage systems are also available using Brayton cycle with air instead of steam for generating electricity and/or steam round the clock. These CSP plants are equipped with gas turbine to generate electricity. These are also small in capacity (<0.4 MW) with flexibility to install in few acres area. Waste heat from the power plant can also be used for process steam generation and HVAC needs. In case land availability is not a limitation, any number of these modules can be installed up to 1000 MW with RAMS and cost advantage since the per MW cost of these units are cheaper than bigger size solar thermal stations.

Centralized district heating round the clock is also feasible with concentrated solar thermal storage plants.

Deployment around the world

National CSP capacities in 2018 (MW_p)
Country		Total	Added
Spain		2,300	0
United States		1,738	0
South Africa		400	100
Morocco		380	200
India		225	0
China		210	200
United Arab Emirates		100	0
Saudi Arabia		50	50
Algeria		25	0
Egypt		20	0
Australia		12	0
Thailand	5	0

A early plant operated in Sicily at Adrano. The US deployment of CSP plants started by 1984 with the SEGS plants. The last SEGS plant was completed in 1990. From 1991 to 2005, no CSP plants were built anywhere in the world. Global installed CSP-capacity increased nearly tenfold between 2004 and 2013 and grew at an average of 50 percent per year during the last five of those years, as the number of countries with installed CSP were growing In 2013, worldwide installed capacity increased by 36% or nearly 0.9 gigawatt (GW) to more than 3.4 GW. The record for capacity installed was reached in 2014, corresponding to 925 MW, however, was followed by a decline caused by policy changes, the global financial crisis, and the rapid decrease in price of the photovoltaic cells. Nevertheless, total capacity reached 6800 MW in 2021. Spain accounted for almost one third of the world's capacity, at 2,300 MW, despite no new capacity entering commercial operation in the country since 2013. The United States follows with 1,740 MW. Interest is also notable in North Africa and the Middle East, as well as China and India.There is a notable trend towards developing countries and regions with high solar radiation with several large plants under construction in 2017.

Efficiency

The efficiency of a concentrating solar power system will depend on the technology used to convert the solar power to electrical energy, the operating temperature of the receiver and the heat rejection, thermal losses in the system, and the presence or absence of other system losses; in addition to the conversion efficiency, the optical system which concentrates the sunlight will also add additional losses.

Real-world systems claim a maximum conversion efficiency of 23-35% for "power tower" type systems, operating at temperatures from 250 to 565 °C, with the higher efficiency number assuming a combined cycle turbine. Dish Stirling systems, operating at temperatures of 550-750 °C, claim an efficiency of about 30%.Due to variation in sun incidence during the day, the average conversion efficiency achieved is not equal to these maximum efficiencies, and the net annual solar-to- electricity efficiencies are 7-20% for pilot power tower systems, and 12-25% for demonstration-scale Stirling dish systems.

Cost and Value

Bulk power from CSP today is much more expensive than solar PV or Wind power, however when including energy storage CSP can be a cheaper alternative. As early as 2011, the rapid decline of the price of photovoltaic systems lead to projections that CSP will no longer be economically viable.[aroun As of 2020, the least expensive utility-scale concentrated solar power stations in the United States and worldwide are five times more expensive than utility-scale photovoltaic power stations, with a projected minimum price of 7 cents per kilowatt-hour for the most advanced CSP stations against record lows of 1.32 cents per kWh for utility-scale PV.This five-fold price difference has been maintained since 2018.

Even though overall deployment of CSP remains limited the levelized cost of power from commercial scale plants has decreased significantly in recent years. With a learning rate estimated at around 20% cost reduction of every doubling in capacity the cost were approaching the upper end of the fossil fuel cost range at the beginning of the 2020s driven by support schemes in several countries, including Spain, the US, Morocco, South Africa, China, and the UAE: LCOE of Concentrating Solar Power from 2006 to 2019

CSP deployment has slowed down considerably as most of the above-mentioned markets have cancelled their support, as the technology turned out to be more expensive on a per kWH basis than solar PV and wind power. CSP in combination with Thermal Energy Storage (TES) is expected by some to remain cheaper than PV with lithium batteries for storage durations above 4 hours per day,while NREL expects that by 2030 PV with 10-hour storage lithium batteries will cost the same as PV with 4-hour storage used to cost in 2020.

Combining the affordability of PV and the dispatchability of CSP is a prominsing avenue for high capacity factor solar power at low cost. Few PV-CSP plants in China are hoping to operate profitably on the regional coal tariff of US$ 50 per MWh in the year 2021.

Future

A study done by Greenpeace International, the European Solar Thermal Electricity Association, and the International Energy Agency's SolarPACES group investigated the potential and future of concentrated solar power. The study found that concentrated solar power could account for up to 25% of the world's energy needs by 2050. The increase in investment would be from €2 billion worldwide to €92.5 billion in that time period.Spain is the leader in concentrated solar power technology, with more than 50 government-approved projects in the works. Also, it exports its technology, further increasing the technology's stake in energy worldwide. Because the technology works best with areas of high insolation (solar radiation), experts predict the biggest growth in places like Africa, Mexico, and the southwest United States. It indicates that the thermal storage systems based in nitrates (calcium, potassium, sodium,...) will make the CSP plants more and more profitable. The study examined three different outcomes for this technology: no increases in CSP technology, investment continuing as it has been in Spain and the US, and finally the true potential of CSP without any barriers on its growth. The findings of the third part are shown in the table below

Year	Annual Investment	Cumulative Capacity
2015	€21 billion	4,755 MW
2050	€174 billion	1,500,000 MW

Finally, the study acknowledged how technology for CSP was improving and how this would result in a drastic price decrease by 2050. It predicted a drop from the current range of €0.23–0.15/kWh to €0.14–0.10/kWh.

The European Union looked into developing a €400 billion (US$774 billion) network of solar power plants based in the Sahara region using CSP technology to be known as Desertec, to create "a new carbon-free network linking Europe, the Middle East and North Africa". The plan was backed mainly by German industrialists and predicted production of 15% of Europe's power by 2050. Morocco was a major partner in Desertec and as it has barely 1% of the electricity consumption of the EU, it could produce more than enough energy for the entire country with a large energy surplus to deliver to Europe. Algeria has the biggest area of desert, and private Algerian firm Cevital signed up for Desertec. With its wide desert (the highest CSP potential in the Mediterranean and Middle East regions about 170 TWh/year) and its strategic geographical location near Europe, Algeria is one of the key countries to ensure the success of Desertec project. Moreover, with the abundant natural-gas reserve in the Algerian desert, this will strengthen the technical potential of Algeria in acquiring Solar-Gas Hybrid Power Plants for 24-hour electricity generation. Most of the participants pulled out of the effort at the end of 2014.

Experience with first-of-a-kind CSP plants in the USA was mixed. Solana in Arizona, and Ivanpah in California indicate large production shortfalls in electricity generation between 25% and 40% in the first years of operation. Producers blame clouds and stormy weather, but critics seem to think there are technological issues. These problems are causing utilities to pay inflated prices for wholesale electricity, and threaten the long-term viability of the technology. As photovoltaic costs continue to plummet, many think CSP has a limited future in utility-scale electricity production. In other countries especially Spain and South Africa CSP plants have met their designed parameters .

CSP has other uses than electricity. Researchers are investigating solar thermal reactors for the production of solar fuels, making solar a fully transportable form of energy in the future. These researchers use the solar heat of CSP as a catalyst for thermochemistry to break apart molecules of H2O, to create hydrogen (H2) from solar energy with no carbon emissions. By splitting both H2O and CO2, other much-used hydrocarbons fuel for example, the jet fuel used to fly commercial airplanes could also be created with solar energy rather than from fossil fuels.

Very large-scale solar power plants

Around the turn of the millennium up to about 2010, there have been several proposals for gigawatt size, very-large-scale solar power plants using CSP. They include the Euro-Mediterranean Desertec proposal and Project Helios in Greece (10 GW), both now canceled. A 2003 study concluded that the world could generate 2,357,840 TWh each year from very large-scale solar power plants using 1% of each of the world's deserts. Total consumption worldwide was 15,223 TWh/year[ (in 2003). The gigawatt size projects would have been arrays of standard-sized single plants. In 2012, the BLM made available 97,921,069 acres (39,627,251 hectares) of land in the southwestern United States for solar projects, enough for between 10,000 and 20,000 GW. The largest single plant in operation is the 510 MW Noor Solar Power Station. In 2022 the 700 MW CSP 4th phase of the 5GW Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in Dubai will become the largest solar complex featuring CSP.

ADVANTAGES OR DISADVANTAGES

· Advantages of solar thermal power plant

1. Saves expensive and depleting fossil fuels.

2. No need to transport fuel.

3. Can be installed in remote and remote areas away from fuel sources.

4. Pollution free

· Disadvantage of solar thermal power plant

1. The cost of power generation is high.

2. Standby power is needed.

3. Requires very large collector area for installation.

4. Can't supply continuous electric power.

5. Suitable only where there are favorable sun-shade conditions.

6. Low thermal efficiency.

7. Thermal storage system is needed.

REFERENCES

· India One Solar Power Plant (india-one.net)

· Idea :- Youtube

· Wikipedia

· Google

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Concentrated Solar Thermal Power Plant (CSP)

Concentrated Solar Thermal Power Plant.