China looks set to pour investment into the solar pot, and a new report suggests that the sun can power a quarter of the world’s energy demand.
 
Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) has been proving itself as a key solution to climate change time and time again of late. Recent triumphs in the form of highly efficient plants with huge generating capacity opening in Spain and California have been attracting attention in the green and investment sectors.

Now comes a report by Greenpeace International, the European Solar Thermal Electricity Association and the International Energy Agency's (IEA) SolarPACES group, that claims CSP could provide 25% of the total world energy demand by 2050 in the right conditions. A quarter of the world’s energy coming from clean and reliable sources would save 2.1 billion tonnes of CO2 a year and create many thousands of jobs, just from one technology.

This projection is the most optimistic scenario that the report discusses, and it depends on the political will to make it happen, along with huge investment. But with predictions that CSP could generate electricity for the same costs as coal as the technology improves there are sure to be willing investors.

Spain already has plans in motion to generate 2GW of power from CSP by 2015 and is leading the way. Read more in the Guardian here

At the other end of the scale, the Chinese government is seeking to boost its solar clout by focusing on microgeneration. In announcements last week it laid out plans within its economic stimulus package to encourage home and business owners to purchase solar photovoltaics to generate their own electricity.

As production costs have dropped rapidly the Chinese government is seeing home generation as a viable tool in its energy mix, whilst also supporting a huge production industry that’s seen a decline in orders since the economic downturn. In just one province, Jiangsu, around £92bn of incentives to increase solar capacity have been announced.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/26/china-invests-solar-power-renewable-energy-environment 

Take a look at the Trec UK group who’ve put together comprehensive suggestions on how the world can switch to CSP. If you like what you see, take a few minutes to support their early day motion to get the dialogue going in Parliament.

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