Concentrated solar essential for EU energy mix

• 12 years ago (2011-11-17)
• Junior Isles

Africa 303 Europe 1061 North America 998 Renewables 752

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A new study argues solar thermal power plants are an indispensable tool in the race to meet Europe’s energy demands and greenhouse gas reduction targets, according to the European scientific commission.

The report by the European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC) says solar thermal power plants should play a central role in achieving a renewables focused European power grid by 2040.

These solar plants "are able to provide energy at any time, to compensate for fluctuations in the supply of renewable energies… and help stabilise the power grid," said Robert Pitz-Paal, director of the study and co-director of the German Institute for Solar Research.

The ability of this kind of solar to counterbalance the innate variability of other renewables sources makes "the value of the electricity generated go beyond just the kilowatt-hours they feed into the system," Pitz-Paal said. Combined with a smart grid they could entirely do away with the necessity of conventional standby power, claims the study.

Concentrated solar uses mirrors to concentrate sunlight and achieve temperatures of 400 to 1200 degrees Celsius, which can be used to generate power in the same way as a conventional steam-operated power station. Solar units are currently in operation on a significant scale only in the western US and in Spain.

An ambitious plan to install solar units in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region as part of the Desertec Industrial Initiative (DII) was announced in the summer of 2009. The solar units under this would feed North African energy demands, and also deliver renewable electricity to the European Union (EU).

DII was set up by ten large European companies, including the German electricity providers E.ON and RWE, the electronics giant Siemens, the insurance company Munich Re and Deutsche Bank. Now, more than 50 companies have joined DII.

Recently DII announced a 500 MW solar plant to be built in Morocco. DII chief executive Paul van Son has said the solar power plant in Morocco would be a "reference project" to show investors and policy makers that the Desertec project can work as a major source of renewable electricity.

Van Son said the plant in Morocco, to come up at a cost of €2 billion ($2.8 billion), should be in operation in 2015.

The first phase of the 12-square-kilometre Moroccan complex will be a 150 MW facility costing up to €600 million. Other plants in Tunisia and Algeria would follow, he said.