Around 0.3% of Sahara could power Europe, Middle East and North Africa All About: CSP
November 13 Rachel Oliver – (CNN) — “What if you could provide the world with an endless supply of virtually carbon-free electricity; ensure a constant source of drinkable water to the world’s most vulnerable areas; avert some of the world’s future humanitarian crises; and save billions of dollars in the process? Certain concentrated solar power (CSP) proponents say there is no “could” about it — it’s more a case of “can.”

Like photovoltaic systems (PV), CSP relies on the sun to work. But where PV relies on mirrors to directly translate the sun’s rays into energy, CSP uses the sun to heat water, or other liquids, to high temperatures, whose resulting steam is then used to drive turbines that create electricity………………..

…………Whereas PV can work on cloudy days, CSP needs direct sunlight — and a lot of it, which means the only practical places on earth CSP plants can really work are in deserts. Deserts typically attract three times as much sunlight as northern Europe, according to The Guardian. It’s why California’s Mojave Desert has traditionally been the world centre for CSP, home to the world’s biggest CSP plants, and is attracting companies from Australia, Germany, Israel and Spain to set up there, according to Business 2.0.Proponents of CSP say you don’t need to use up much of the desert space to make CSP effective. A solar farm taking up 92 by 92 miles of desert could power the entire U.S., for example, according to Green Wombat, referring to a calculation made by the chairman of solar company Ausra, David Mills.

…………………………….CSP is attracting a list of high profile champions in the field of commerce, including venture capitalist Vinod Khosla. Khosla was one of the early backers of Google, Amazon and AOL and his latest venture is to invest in CSP, according to The Toronto Star………………………………….The founder of Greenpeace Lebanon, Fouad Hamdan, also argues it makes economic sense when compared with many world politicians’ favored solution to climate change — nuclear energy. Writing in Lebanon’s Daily Star, he argues that when comparing nuclear energy and CSP like-for-like on a cost basis, nuclear becomes “economically insane.”
“Investing in nuclear is a huge waste of money,” Hamdan writes. “Plans to build a CSP in Egypt are estimated at $140 million for 140 MW, or about $1 million per MW. In comparison, the cost to build a nuclear power plant is estimated to be at least at $1.5 billion for 1,000 MW – about $1.5 million per MW.”

……………………………………..But while environmentalists can make things unpleasant, politicians can make things impossible. A small number of media sources have been reporting recently that there is a growing possibility that U.S. Democrats will allow solar and wind energy tax credits and a renewable portfolio standard (which obliges utilities companies to produce a certain amount of their energy from renewable sources) to be stripped from the forthcoming U.S. Congressional Energy Bill. It has the U.S renewable energy industry in a state of panic………………………………………………..”.

SEVILLE’S SOLAR POWER TOWER inhabitat by Jorge 21 May 07 “Rising out of the Andalusian countryside like a gigantic obelisk, a 40 story concrete tower surrounded by fields of photovoltaic panels is is the first stage of Europe’s first commercial solar power station , which recently went into operation in a sunny region outside Seville, Spain…………….

The first stage of the solar power station, known as PS10, is a 300ft tall tower surrounded by 624 solar panels which will produce enough energy to power 60,000 homes. There is also a secondary component, known as Sevilla PV, which is a photovoltaic power plant composed of 154 panels, which will generate enough electricity for about 1800 homes.

Here is how the tower works: the solar panels, a 120m2 mixture of mirrors and photovoltaics, track the sun throughout the year, reflect the energy of the sun to solar receptor at the top of the tower. Water passes through pipes at the top, and is heated enough to turn it into steam by the solar receptor, which in turn passes through a series of turbines to produce electricity.t is a sight to be seen. The area around the tower becomes so bright, that it actually illuminates the water vapor and dust that is in the air. It becomes necessary to wear sunglasses while you are there……………………………..

The entire development, once it’s operational, will generate zero greenhouse gas emissions.SEVILLE’S SOLAR POWER TOWER inhabitat by Jorge 21 May 07 “Rising out of the Andalusian countryside like a gigantic obelisk, a 40 story concrete tower surrounded by fields of photovoltaic panels is is the first stage of Europe’s first commercial solar power station , which recently went into operation in a sunny region outside Seville, Spain…………….

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Tags: renewable, solar