Concentrated solar thermal power — aka solar baseload — remains
hot. The Daily Climate has a nice update: All told some 60
plants are either under construction or under contract worldwide
— with most in either Spain or the United States — for a total
capacity just north of 5,700 megawatts Here is the world list of
projects. Here is the The technology that will save humanity,”
in large part because it is highly scalable, eventually able to
achieve 50 to 100 gigawatts a year growth or more.“ Indeed,
given the immense challenges that coal with CCS faces (see “Is
coal with carbon capture and storage a core climate solution?“),
I’m still happy, indeed eager, to bet that concentrated solar
thermal will continue delivering more power every year this
century than so-called “clean coal” — and at a far lower cost
per kilowatt-hour. Solar baseload’s ultimate “trump card” is, of
course, storage: The ability to store power for later use is a
holy grail of sorts for renewable energy developers. Wind and
photovoltaic plants