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| 1 |
ID:
110705
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| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Study of low-carbon and pollution renewable alternatives for China revealed that concentrating solar thermal (CST) electric power generation was underemphasized in China's renewable energy plan. The analysis shows the competitive viability of CST: (1) China has the key prerequisites to make CST power generation economical including high-quality insolation and appropriate land, (2) CST's proven history, scale, and dispatchability makes it a good utility-scale power option, especially in the economically underdeveloped Western regions, (3) while CST power is currently more expensive than coal-fired electricity on a nominal basis, when costs of externalities are accounted for, CST, at 11.4 US cents/kWh, can become 57% cheaper than scrubbed coal and 29% cheaper than nuclear power, (4) CST power continues dropping in cost due to economies of scale and technological improvements and can potentially realize a levelized electricity cost of around 4 cents/kWh within ten years, (5) it would significantly rise in competitiveness if and when China completes the extensive smart grid for connecting its solar-abundant western regions with the high-demand eastern regions, (6) CST has the potential to positively impact Western China's economy, but proper policy and deal structure must be in place to ensure that the local community shares the benefit.
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| 2 |
ID:
114293
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| Publication |
2012.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Concentrated Solar Thermal Power (CSP) represents a technology with a great deal of promise for low-emissions electricity generation. Several recent studies have identified large swathes of the world's 'sunbelt' as technically suitable for the technology, but current estimates grossly overestimate site suitability for CSP. There is a need for more realistic suitability estimations in order to provide a more accurate basis for policy and investment decisions. This paper establishes a generally applicable GIS-based methodology to better enable identification of CSP-suitable sites at the continental scale. We test the methodology, identifying a large number of CSP suitable sites in Western Australia (WA). Our results indicate a 99.4% reduction from technically suitable areas to areas showing medium-to-very-high suitability in the current and near term in WA. The availability of infrastructure is critical to site suitability and the introduction of new major loads and infrastructure in currently under-developed regions is likely to open up further areas with medium to very high suitability. Despite the fact that current global/continental scale estimates of CSP potentials are likely overestimated by at least two orders of magnitude, truly CSP-suitable areas remain more than sufficient to motivate investment in utility-scale CSP and power potentials from this technology remain enormous.
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