(Credit: langalex, http://www.flickr.com/photos/langalex/)
An independent report investigating the potential to accelerate the deployment of small-scale concentrated solar power (CSP) in various developing countries was undertaken by the Carbon Trust for the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change. According to the report, the critical barriers to deployment of CSP in industrial applications are low awareness, lack of confidence, and unattractive payback periods.
Concentrated solar power (also called concentrating solar power, concentrated solar thermal, and CSP) systems use mirrors or lenses to concentrate a large area of sunlight, or solar thermal energy, onto a small area. Electrical power is produced when the concentrated light is converted to heat, which drives a heat engine (usually a steam turbine) connected to an electrical power generator or powers an, experimental as of 2013, thermochemical reaction.
As it is stated in the report, there is substantial growth potential in the use of small-scale CSP for industrial process heat, with a potential increase in global deployment from 25MW today to 63GW in 2050—growth by a factor of 2,500—and growth potential in Africa and Latin America of as much as a factor of 4,600 from now to 2050. Small-scale CSP can be deployed in a wide range of potential industrial applications and sectors. India is the world’s leading market for CSP in industrial applications with 70 installed systems, a range of domestic manufacturers and massive potential demand.
However, there are critical barriers to deployment of CSP in industrial applications, namely the low awareness, lack of confidence, and unattractive payback periods. An intervention focussed on demonstration of plants would directly address these critical barriers. The interviews conducted by the authors of the report indicated that demonstration projects were needed to stimulate demand growth in new markets.
A full text of the report.