Concentrated Solar Power

The concentrated solar power also called concentrated solar thermal or CSP (should not to be confused with concentrated photovoltaic CPV) is a new technology which has been tested and demonstrated as one of the most motivating ways to produce electrical power.

The principle is based to the conversion of light concentrated by a system of mirrors or lenses into heat energy which is used to rotate a steam turbine connected to an electrical power generator.

The CSP market is continuously growing up all across the world, the marketplace contains moreover than 10 countries.  Spain is leading this field within more than 1102MW of CSP power production. US is in the second rank with a capacity of 517MW in 2011. Algeria, Morocco and Egypt are in the top 5.

The largest CSP project in the world is SHAMS-I 100MW which has been built in Abu Dhabi, it will be dethroned by Ouarzazat CSP plant in Morocco upon completion of 500MW capacity in 2015. The struggle won't stops here because of the ongoing construction of 946 MW new solar station in Spain and further mega projects expected in USA.

All these ongoing projects illustrate the pace of the development of CSP.

In the Moroccan case we will say that the government is following the right way. Morocco has the ambition to produce 40% of its power consumption through clean energy to the end of 2020.  The effect of such strategy provides an opportunity to develop the Know How of renewable energy technologies while dealing with international providers of engineering and equipments in the CSP context.

The Moroccan kingdom should increase its knowledge and industrial potential beside of current exchange with most advanced expertise of solar energy to benefit from the growth of this new kind of energy.

By Youness MGC