The sun in Spain makes power for the plain

World’s largest solar plant under construction

On the plains of Andalusia, a solar plant is taking shape which will supply electricity to up to 200,000 people.

Scheduled for completion in 2009, the plant uses ‘parabolic trough technology’. This generates electricity by harnessing the abundant sunshine that pours down on southern Spain. Trough-shaped mirrors funnel sunlight into a heat transfer oil, which produces steam to drive turbines and make electricity. Such ‘concentrated solar power’ (CSP), as it’s known, could have huge potential for many of the world’s hot, arid areas [see GF64, ‘Recharging in the sun’].

The German Aerospace Centre recently published reports proposing a major role for CSP, alongside wind and biomass power, in a renewable energy grid spanning Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. This, it says, would allow the gradual phase-out of fossil and nuclear fuel.

Dr Gerry Wolff, of CSP advocates Trans- Mediterranean Renewable Energy Co-operation (TREC), told Green Futures: “The world urgently needs new sources of carbon-free energy; CSP can play a major part in meeting that need. CSP from North Africa and the Middle East would be an important part of the energy mix. But, up to 2050, it would not provide more than 15% of Europe’s electricity supplies. Many other renewable sources would be used [as well] and compared with the situation now, there would be an overall reduction in imports of energy. This, coupled with a wider diversity of sources of energy, would mean greater resilience and security of energy supplies.” – Anna Blackaby and Martin Wright

20 September 2007

Martin Wright