Concentrating Solar Thermal Energy Development in China and India

April 27, 2011 by Chunfeng

Solar thermal technologies harness the sun’s radiation to boil special fluids whose steam runs a turbine that generates electricity. CST power production is continuous and can be dispatched, easing the intermittence problem associated with wind or solar photovoltaic power generation. PV facilities can convert roughly 10-15 percent Sunlight into grid quality electricity. In comparison, CSP plants, with thermal storage, can harness up to 60-70 percent of the sun’s energy into usable heat for power generation.

CSP technology showed especially strong growth in Spain and the United States since 2006. An installed capacity is expected to 4.5GW by 2010 and the capacity will exceed 20GW worldwide by 2020. (Solar Millennium AG , 2010)

Development in China

Compared to PV power generation, CST development has been rather limited. By 2008, large-scale grid-connect solar power capacity comes almost all from photovoltaic installations. Unlike photovoltaic technology, which uses diffused solar radiation and can be used in wider geographical areas, CST power technology requires direct solar radiation gain. Thus, its competitive market potential is limited to arid and semi-arid areas such as Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Tibet, and Xinjiang. Results show however, CST power is more cost competitive than PV, stated by International Energy Agency (IEA) (IEA, 2009) Thus, a MW-scale, CST power demonstration project is included for implementation during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period, 2006–2010. In January 2010, eSolar, a global supplier of concentrating solar power plants, and China Shandong Penglai Electric Power Equipment Manufacturing Co. Ltd., a privately owned company announced a master licensing agreement to build at least 2 GW of solar thermal power plants in China over the next 10 years.

India

Solar thermal technologies have a special relevance in India due to high availability of resource; average radiation is 4.5 - 6 kwh/m2/day with average 280 clear days. The equivalent energy potential is about 6,000 million GWh of energy per year. The Thar Desert of northwestern India is identified as a prime site for CST development. In view of the increasing energy demand in all the sectors there is immense potential especially in domestic and industrial sector to meet thermal energy demands.
India has announced the “Solar India” plan on December 2009 with estimated costs of USD 1bn. The “Solar India” plan adopts a three‐phased approach with a preliminary goal of installing 200 MW of solar energy capacity by 2012. By the year 2022, Solar India hopes to have 20,000 MW of solar thermal and photovoltaic energy up and running, in detail it contains the following targets:
− To create favorable conditions for solar manufacturing capability, particularly solar thermal for indigenous production and market leadership.
− To promote programs for off grid applications, reaching 1000 MW by 2017 and 2000 MW by 2022.
− To achieve 15 million sq. meters solar thermal collector area by 2017 and 20 million by 2022.
− To deploy 20 million solar lighting systems for rural areas by 2022.