Decarbonization Avenue : Concentrated Solar Power

In fact

Solar CSP and desalination

Solar energy based desalination could strike you as an obvious idea. Yet, it has not worked in a big way so far. And the main reason is, the low temperature solar systems such as solar water heaters will not be able to produce the high temperatures needed to boil water and convert it into vapour.

This is where concentrating solar thermal tecnnologies come in. Though originally developed for power generation, the concentrated solar systems can generate very high temperatures.

Use of concentrated solar solutions for desalination seems a good fit on other aspects as well - desert regions are some of the most suitable ones for installing such solutions, and many desert regions border the sea (think Middle East).

All these suggest a powerful combination, don't they?

There still are challenges in terms of costs, but many recent efforts are trying to make this combination work, one such being a recent research effort by Cranfield University and others in a EU funded project - https://bit.ly/3sdz5mZ .


Relevant for

Innovation sector

  • Heat & thermodynamics
  • Renewable energy sciences
  • Water

Other In fact

Stakeholders

  • University researcher
  • Solution provider
  • Financial investor
  • Government