concentrating solar power

The most ambitious solar power plan ever conceived may be coming into some serious cash.

A group of 20 German firms is forming a consortium this July to begin raising $555 billion for the much-discussed Afro-European solar research project known as Desertec, the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung revealed this week.

Desertec seeks to transform Saharan Africa into a solar hub for Europe by constructing a supergrid of concentrating solar thermal plants (CSP) on 6,500 square miles of North African desert. They claim their scheme could eventually meet much of the continent's electricity needs.

Half a trillion dollars in funding would certainly be a tremendous start in that direction. In fact, that kind of financing would be enough to power 15 percent of the continent by 2050.

Talk about a boost for Big Solar.

The news of the colossal cash infusion is grabbing global headlines. And it's no wonder. The firms involved are some of the heaviest hitters in Europe: insurance giant Munich Re, German engineering leader Siemens, Deutsche Bank, energy companies RWE and E.on, among others.

Concentrating solar power (CSP) plants could meet 7 percent of the world's power needs by 2030 and 25 percent by 2050, according to a new report by Greenpeace, the European Solar Thermal Electricity Association and the International Energy Agency.

Such systems currently make up just 430 megawatts of generation capacity, or less than one half of one percent of electricity needs worldwide.

CSP "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," the report's authors write.

If that giant leap in capacity happens, they say, the sector would employ 2 million people in the next four decades and save 2.1 billion tons of global warming emissions in 2050.

To great media fanfare, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced that Australia will build the "world's largest" solar installation. To make it happen, he pledged a billion-dollar subsidy as part of the 2009-10 federal budget.

That investment is 10 times greater than Australia's total funding commitment to solar to date.

The facility will consist of four utility-scale solar plants. Two of them will be concentrated solar power (CSP) plants, or solar thermal, while two will use solar photovoltaics (PV). Together they will churn out a coal plant's worth of electricity – up to 1,000 MW – or enough to power roughly 800,000 homes.

"Rather than to be solar followers worldwide we intend to be solar leaders worldwide," Rudd declared.

Truth time: If global leadership is the goal, then Australia has a long way to go.

Annually, the nation has the highest average amount of solar radiation per square meter of any continent on the planet, and nearly all of it is untapped.

You can't cast a stone without hitting a story on Spain’s influential solar sector, and this week is no exception.

Spain-based Abengoa announced it had started operations at the world's largest "solar power tower" – a 20 MW, concentrating solar plant (CSP) near Seville.

The massive installation is called PS20, and its technology is one to watch. In fact, that power tower you see here could be the future of utility-scale solar. Here's how it works:

Over 1,200 movable mirrors, or heliostats, spread over hundreds of acres of desert land, reflecting sunlight onto a receiver at the top of a central, liquid-filled, 531-foot tower. Concentrated rays heat the water, creating steam to drive a turbine that produces power for 10,000 households.

The PS20 is Abengoa's second go at bringing a solar tower online. The first – the 11-MW PS10 – was fired up to great fanfare in 2007. It sits some 15 miles west of Seville and powers 5,500 homes.

New projects to harness thermal power from America's sun-soaked deserts keep rolling in – thanks in part to Spain.

The latest was announced this week, when Madrid-based Albiasa Solar disclosed plans for a 200 MW, $1 billion concentrating solar plant (CSP) that will spread a sea of parabolic mirrors over a 1,400-acre stretch of Arizona desert near Kingman.

When completed in 2013, the billion-dollar plant will power 50,000 homes.

It's the first solar deal on U.S. soil for Albiasa – and the latest move by a Spanish firm to cash in on the country's concentrated sunlight.

Hollywood-based start-up Sunrgi claims its solar will be as cheap as coal -- and soon.

The cost: 5 cents wholesale per kilowatt-hour.

When: 12 to 15 months for commercial production.

Craig Goodman, president of the National Energy Marketers Associations, says it would be a godsend to the world:

Solar power at 5 cents per kWh would be a world-changing breakthrough. It would make solar generation of electricity as affordable as generation from coal, natural gas or other non-renewable sources, without requiring any subsidy.

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• Stacy Feldman's blog
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"Big Solar" may take on a whole new meaning if Desertec, the most ambitious solar thermal plan ever conceived, gets funded.

Its architects claim they can build a supergrid of concentrating solar thermal plants (CSP) that can meet most of Europe's current electricity needs by using just 0.3 percent of the deserts of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) – and at a cost less than oil.

The long-term prospects look even sunnier.

After seven years of dead-end negotiations, Israel will soon turn 1,000 acres in the Negev Desert into giant solar thermal stations.

The $700 million enterprise will comprise two plants to supply 250 megawatts of power in total, equal to 2.5 percent of the nation’s electricity needs.

And it’s slated for solar stardom.