Concentrated Solar Power (CSP), a cheap, simple, safe and clean parabolic, mirror-based technology that is capable of replacing and outlasting oil, gas, coal and nuclear.

The basic technology is extremely simple. The Ancient Greeks used it to try to set fire to enemy warships. Concentrated Solar Power uses parabolic mirrors to concentrate the suns heat (not to be confused with PV Photovoltaic which uses the suns light to generate electricity). It is quite possible using even a small parabolic reflector to have a point at the centre hot enough to melt metal. One sq. mile of Concentrated Solar Power mirror field can generate the same amount of energy as one hundred sq. miles of the best growing biomass crop.

In an attempt to acknowledge the mounting concern about global climate change and energy security, developed-world countries and their leaders such as Bush, Blair and Putin have been promoting nuclear power as a major solution. Yet nuclear power only supplies 3.1% of global energy consumption.

In principle, less than 1% of the world's hot deserts could generate as much electricity as the world currently consumes. The TRANS-CSP Report (2006) suggests that by 2050 Europe can be self-sufficient in meeting its electricity needs, make deep cuts in CO2 emissions from electricity generation, and phase out nuclear power at the same time. 15% of this energy could come from Concentrated Solar Power imports and the rest from wind power and other renewable resources.

We have 100,000 terra watts beaming down on us and human beings might only use 15 terra watts. In fact we have so much solar sunlight that it would be the equivalent of an 8-inch deep layer of oil everywhere on the planet annually (Khosla, 2006).

Concentrated Solar Power works best in deserts. There are deserts within 2,500km of 90% of the entire world's population e.g. North and South America, North and South Africa, Australia, India, Middle East etc.

Concentrated Solar Power can supply base load. It is possible to store solar heat in melted salts such as nitrates of sodium or potassium or in heated concrete. This means that it is possible to continue generating electricity through the night or on cloudy days.

To generate the entire world's electricity by nuclear power we would have to increase it by a factor of 30. The uranium problem could be solved by moving to fast-breeder reactors, a technology that's not proven and inherently unsafe as its uses plutonium. However, for a cost cheaper than nuclear (the nuclear industry consistently misrepresent the cost of nuclear power which can only exist with huge public subsidy) you could generate the same amount of electricity using Concentrated Solar Power, which is a tried and tested, safe and does not depend on high technology or have dangerous unresolved waste issues.

Bush and Blair have shown no interest in promoting a strategy for using Concentrated Solar Power for energy and climate security, despite evidence that the technology could deliver energy cost effectively.

On being elected in 2000, the Bush Administration requested the termination of Concentrated Solar Power, despite the success of established Concentrated Solar Power power stations. The Concentrated Solar Power station at Kramer Junction, California has been up and running for 20 years.

The National Academy of Sciences was coerced by the US Department of Energy (DoE) to re-evaluated the Concentrated Solar technologies. The report, issued in 2003, showed Concentrated Solar Power to be viable with attainable costs of 4-6 cents (US) per kWh for solar troughs. A 26,000km2 farm in south-western US could provide as much electricity as is needed to power the entire country.

New power stations are being built in the U.S. It is projected that they will be able to deliver electricity at 2.5p per kWh, which is half the price of nuclear. Nuclear is projected to cost 5p/kWhr but will probably come in closer to 8p (it is important to note here that these costs are changing all the time).

Vinod Khosla (2006) the Indian venture capitalist based in Silicon Valley while speaking of Concentrated Solar Power at the Solar Power Conference 2006, San Jose said "We are poised for breakaway growth, explosive growth, not because we are cleaner but because we are cheaper, we happen to be cleaner incidentally".

Unlike nuclear, which can only survive with huge public subsidy, Concentrated Solar Power has the capability of unsubsidised competitiveness and unlike nuclear, it is cheap, carbon-free, clean and safe. It uses solar energy, which is free, renewable and infinite in supply. Concentrated Solar Power has none of the unresolved dangerous waste issues of nuclear, nor would it be at risk from terrorist attack.

Concentrated Solar Power electricity could become one of the cheapest sources of electricity in Europe (including the cost of transmission) (TREC-UK, 2007). Europe's first commercial concentrating PS10 solar power tower was recently put into operation near the southern Spanish city of Seville. The 11 megawatt solar power tower produces electricity with 624 large movable mirrors.

The map above shows a macro Concentrated Solar Power project that is being fronted by an NGO called TREC (Trans Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation) comprising European and African members (EUMENA) who have put forward a cooperative plan for powering Saharan countries and the EU using a network of low loss grid lines linked to very large Concentrated Solar Power schemes in the Sahara.

Developed by a German NGO in conjunction with the German government and German Aerospace Centre and coordinated by Dr.Gerhard Knies, TREC demonstrates that an area of 110km x 110km in the Moroccan-Algerian Sahara can generate all of Europe's electricity needs (a slightly be slightly larger now as it is a figure based on 25 E.U. member states in 2004). An area of 254km x 254km can generate the global energy requirements as projected for 2030. The electricity would be delivered by DC power lines that have a far lower loss of energy in transmission than AC, thereby liberating Europe and the world of its dependence on such unreliable energy providers as Russia, Iran and Iraq etc. (see map).

Areas of the size as indicated by the squares would be sufficient for Concentrated Solar Power Plants to generate as much electricity as is currently consumed by the World, by Europe (EU-25) and by Germany respectively. (Data provided by the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), 2005)

This map shows highlighted the areas suitable for Concentrated Solar Power electricity generation.

Coastal regions within the highlighted areas in the map above would be highly suitable for Concentrated Solar Power desalination. Schemes along coastal areas could also desalinate very large quantities of seawater into drinking or irrigation water and enough electricity to pump it anywhere.

By an extraordinary omission Concentrated Solar Power was not included in Princeton University's '15 Carbon Wedges' and is hardly referred to in Al Gores Climate Change presentations or movie 'An Inconvenient Truth' despite the fact that it is capable of delivering more electricity than nuclear and all of them put together.

As well as the broader centralised power solutions that Concentrated Solar Power offers there are also micro applications of Concentrated Solar Power for the developing world providing cheap to build off-grid local Concentrated Solar Power power stations and desalinisation plants that can be built locally with locally available materials.

It can also be used for low tech solar cooking and incredibly simple and cheap new methods of water pasteurisation, using simple solar cooking technology. It could have a significant impact on the annual death of 5 million children from water borne diseases and significantly reduce the number of deaths from smoke inhalation ( the WHO estimates that 1.6 million people die annually from hazards related to the use of biomass for cooking fuel).

Solar cooking impacts many other environmental and humanitarian issues such as deforestation, women's protection issues and medical sterilization in rural hospitals.

Despite the thunderous impact Concentrated Solar Power could have on poverty reduction the U.N. has deselected it from eligibility for UN Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) funding on a feeble red tape pretext. CDM funding is only available for projects involving afforestation or reforestation. Since at the minimum solar cooking can help stop deforestation by reducing the 1billion tonnes of firewood that are being cut every year for cooking fuel, this seems insane.

It is high time everybody, including Bush and Blair woke up to Concentrated Solar Power. It is important that world leaders actually lead the way in providing an environmentally sound, cheap, safe energy supply that helps combat climate change rather than taking us along the incredibly expensive, dangerous and short-term nuclear route.

Most MP's and scientists seem to be completely unaware of its existence let alone its implications for helping stop climate change and cost effectiveness. Given Germany's hosting of the G8 this year and Merkel's and German Government's involvement in the development of Concentrated Solar Power technology and its prioritisation of Africa and the climate change issues we have to resolve, developing Concentrated Solar Power should be at the top of the G8 agenda.

Ultimately energy decisions are based on cost and Concentrated Solar Power is not just a clean form of energy but also is economically extremely competitive. With governments around the world, from Australia to the UK, poised to take us all into a future of nuclear power, we should all be aware that there is an alternative. Concentrated Solar Power is the key missing piece of the renewable jigsaw puzzle. The secure energy supply of the future that will last as long as the sun continues to rise.

"Clean Power from Deserts. Does CSP offer the a solution to global warmingand climate change?", Gerhard Knies, Hay Festival (May, 2007).

COMING SOON:

COMPREHENSIVE REPORT ON THE MICRO APPLICATIONS OF CONCENTRATED SOLAR POWER