Solar Thermal Power Coming to a Boil
(Page 2 of 4)
July 22, 2008
By Jonathan G. Dorn, Earth Policy Institute
Today, more than a dozen new solar thermal plants are being planned in the United States, with some 3,100 megawatts expected to come online by 2012. (Click here to see a worldwide list of proposed solar thermal projects.) Some impressive CSP projects in the planning stages include the 553-megawatt Mojave Solar Park in California, the 500-megawatt Solar One and 300-megawatt Solar Two projects in California, a 300-megawatt facility in Florida, and the 280-megawatt Solana plant in Arizona.
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In Spain, the first commercial-scale CSP plant to begin operation outside the United States since the mid-1980s came online in 2007: the 11-megawatt PS10 tower. The tower is part of the 300-megawatt Solúcar Platform, which, when completed in 2013, will contain 10 CSP plants and produce enough electricity to supply 153,000 homes while preventing 185,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions annually. All told, more than 60 plants are in the pipeline in Spain, with 2,570 megawatts expected to come online by 2012.
Economic and policy incentives are partly responsible for the renewed interest in CSP. The incentives in the United States include a 30 percent federal Investment Tax Credit for solar through the end of 2008, which has good prospects for being extended, and Renewable Portfolio Standards in 26 states. California requires that utilities get 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2010, and Nevada requires 20 percent by 2015, with at least 5 percent from solar power. The primary incentive in Spain is a feed-in tariff that guarantees that utilities will pay power producers €0.26 (40 cents) per kilowatt-hour for electricity generated by CSP plants for 25 years.
In the southwestern United States, the cost of electricity from solar thermal plants (including the federal tax credit) is roughly 13 to 17 cents per kilowatt-hour, meaning that concentrated solar power with thermal storage is competitive today with simple-cycle natural gas-fired power plants. The U.S. Department of Energy aims to reduce concentrated solar power costs to 7 to 10 cents per kilowatt-hour by 2015 and to 5 to 7 cents per kilowatt-hour by 2020, making it competitive with fossil-fuel-based power sources.
Outside the United States and Spain, regulatory incentives in France, Greece, Italy and Portugal are expected to stimulate the installation of 3,200 megawatts of solar thermal capacity by 2020. China anticipates building 1,000 megawatts by that time. Other countries developing solar thermal include Australia, Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Mexico, Morocco, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. (Click here to see a map of CSP development.)
