Solar thermal power generation potential

What is solar thermal power generation?

Harnessing solar energy for electric power generation is one of the growing technologies which provide a sustainable solution to the severe environmental issues such as climate change, global warming, and pollution. This chapter deals with the solar thermal power generation based on the line and point focussing solar concentrators.

Can solar thermal power plants be integrated with conventional power plants?

Solar thermal power plants have enormous potential to be integrated with the existing conventional power plants. The integration of CSP systems with conventional power plants increases the efficiency, reduces the overall cost, and increases the dispatchability and reliability of the solar power generation system.

Why are solar thermal power plants important?

Since solar thermal power plants can feed their electricity into the power grid even after sunset, they are of particular value for an energy system based on renewable energy sources. Solar thermal power plants are of strategic importance in sunny countries to be able to phase out coal and gas power plants in the future.

Are solar thermal power plants the future of energy?

With approximately six gigawatts of installed capacity worldwide in 2020, solar thermal power plants are still at the beginning of their market introduction, comparable to photovol-taics 15 years ago or wind energy 25 years ago.

Is solar thermal power generation better than solar PV?

In the world of renewable power generation technologies, solar thermal power generation faces stiff competition from solar PV and wind energy systems. The latter two systems are not just more technologically mature, but also cheaper than the former.

Should solar thermal power plants be a viable alternative to fossil-fuel power plants?

In sunny countries, a new solar thermal power plant project is usually one of the possible alternatives for generating electricity from renewable energy sources, which are still in com-petition with fossil-fuel power plants. In this competition, the cost of electricity generation plays a decisive role.