solar thermal power - Greenpeace

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PART5 POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS 1. The Political Challenge Energy is considered to be a vital ingredient for any economic development. The history of industrialisation in today’s developed nations is also a history of massive fossil energy exploitation, with its associated benefits of rapid availability, high energy density, and – at least initially – low generation costs. Over the past three decades, however, the harmful environmental impact of fossil fuels on the regional and global climate has been brought into sharp focus. SOLAR THERMAL POWER PLANTS 42
For those nations still in development, energy is even more vital as they have to make up for, and keep pace with, the mature energy infrastructure of the industrialised nations in an increasingly globalised economy. Furthermore, it is widely accepted in the developing world that these countries should not just copy the historical energy patterns of the developed world, but should consider building up a sustainable energy infrastructure which avoida long term detriments. Although history has shown that building up such an infrastructure is most efficiently managed by the private sector, governments do have a public responsibility to ensure fair market rules, level playing fields for the market participants and, most importantly, sustainability of living conditions for the generations to come. Hence they face many challenges in formulating current and future energy policies. They have to respond to the need for security of energy supply, economic growth, sustainable development, employment and technological development and to combat the growing effects of climate change. Renewable energy technologies are considered to have a positive impact on all these parameters. This study clearly demonstrates that solar thermal power plants, up to now not widely known as an energy technology, are one of the most promising renewable sources – capable of meeting 5% of future global electricity demand by the year 2040. The developing world in particular, with its abundant and evenly distributed solar resource, can contribute in a cost-effective way to the bulk power supply of mega-cities, where decentralised or fluctuating power supply would be inadequate. This strategic power supply advantage has already motivated development banks, such as the World Bank, European Investment Bank and the German Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau to support the implementation of solar thermal power plants. Without initial political and financial support, however, solar thermal power remains at a competitive disadvantage, largely because of inadequate price information in the world’s electricity markets resulting from decades of massive financial and structural support to traditional polluting fuels and power plant technologies. Solar thermal power plants have to compete in a well established, very competitive energy market segment where older nuclear and fossil fuel power stations produce electricity at marginal cost because the interest payments and depreciation on their investment costs have already been paid by consumers and taxpayers. Political action is therefore needed to overcome those distortions and create a level playing field in which the economic and environmental benefits of solar thermal power can be fully exploited. 2. Successful Market Creation Policy Measures A clear, visible market for solar thermal power must be defined in order for a project developer to seriously consider getting involved. Just as with any other investment, the lower the risk to the investor, the lower the costs can be for supplying the product. The most important measures for establishing new solar power markets are therefore those where the market for solar electricity is clearly embedded in national laws, providing a stable and long term investment environment with relatively low investor risks and sufficient returns. As already outlined, a key benefit of a growing solar thermal energy market is job creation. It is estimated that direct and indirect employment in the industry worldwide, not including the production of components and equipment, could rise to about 100,000 jobs by 2020. In order to attract solar thermal power plant suppliers to establish manufacturing facilities, markets need to be strong, stable and reliable, with a clear commitment to long term expansion. • Legally Binding Targets for Renewable Electricity in the EU and US In recent years an increasing number of countries have established targets for renewable energy as part of their greenhouse gas reduction policies. These are either expressed as specific quantities of installed capacity or as a percentage of energy consumption. Renewable energy targets are most effective if they are based on a percentage of a nation’s total electricity consumption. This creates an incentive to optimise renewable technologies in the supply mix, and provides a guide to where immediate policy changes are required in order to achieve the anticipated targets. But targets have little value if they are not accompanied by policies to achieve a level playing field in electricity markets, to eliminate market barriers and to create an economic framework environment that will attract investment. The most ambitious target has been set by the European Union. In 2001 the European Council and the European Parliament adopted a Renewable Energy Directive establishing national targets for each member state. Although these are not at present legally binding, the Directive aims at doubling the share of renewable energy sources in the primary energy mix from 6% to 12% by 2010, equivalent to 22% of Europe’s total electricity consumption. If this non-binding approach appears not to be working, then the Directive allows the European Commission to submit proposals to the European Parliament and Council for mandatory renewable energy targets. SOLAR THERMAL POWER PLANTS 43
Page 1 and 2: SOLAR THERMAL POWER EXPLOITING THE
Page 3 and 4: CONTENTS FOREWORD EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Page 5 and 6: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Power from the Su
Page 7 and 8: KEY RESULTS FROM GREENPEACE-ESTIA S
Page 9 and 10: Solar thermal power uses direct sun
Page 11 and 12: Arial View of five 30MW SEGS plants
Page 13 and 14: Table 2: Comparison of Solar Therma
Page 15 and 16: Figure 7: Side view of a EuroTrough
Page 17 and 18: Solar Costs “For the current stat
Page 19 and 20: Figure 8: Parabolic Trough Power Pl
Page 21 and 22: Cost Trends Installed capital costs
Page 23 and 24: Figure 10: AndaSol Configuration di
Page 25 and 26: Climate Change and Fuel Choices Car
Page 27 and 28: Progress on developing the market h
Page 29 and 30: In other countries with a large sol
Page 31 and 32: Table 6: Solar Thermal Power Target
Page 33 and 34: The key findings were: • The sola
Page 35 and 36: Italy In 2001, the Italian parliame
Page 37 and 38: KEY RESULTS FROM GREENPEACE-ESTIA S
Page 39 and 40: Table 8: Solar Thermal Power by 202
Page 41 and 42: Table 16: Latin America Year OECD-L
Page 43: Table 24: Case Study: Israel Year I
Page 47 and 48: 3. Public-Private Partnerships for
Page 49 and 50: III. Improve financing mechanisms E
Page 51 and 52: By 2040 the proportion of global el

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