parabolic dish

Showcase: These parabolic dishes supply a solar air-conditioning plant of a hospital in Gujarat state in western India and replace 1 ton of wood consumption every day. Photo: Gadhia Solar Energy Systems

This 2009 document is the contribution from ESTELA (European Solar Thermal Electricity Association) to the European Commission’s Strategic Energy Technology Plan. The report gives a good overview of the strategic benefits of focusing on solar thermal and connects it with its socio-economic benefits.

This 2009 report looks into the global outlook of concentrating solar power (CSP). The report first looks into the different CSP technologies and makes a comparison based on the advantages and disadvantages. The report also provides an overview of the CSP development by region. For certain countries per region a more detailed assessment is provided. In particular, the potential of the Mediterranean and the MENA region is being assessed.

The authors of this 2008 paper aim to demonstrate the importance concentrating solar power has for desalination of freshwater. Due to the projected growth in economy and population and the anticipated increase in future water consumption in the MENA region, the paper shows that the CSP technology has the potential to provide a solution for the growing water deficits.

This study from 2008 assesses the economic impact of solar thermal electricity in Spain. In particular, the economic analysis is done for three solar thermal technologies: parabolic trough, central tower and parabolic dish. The objective of the conducted study is to estimate the socio-economic impacts coming from the construction of solar thermal power plants in Spain.

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Source: CIEMAT

This 2009 paper underlines the overall benefits of solar power especially when considered as part of a country or region's energy generation options mix. In addition to listing the available technologies, the document also looks into the economics of solar thermal and provides a summary comparison among parabolic through, central receiver and parabolic dish technologies.