The need to strategically manage CSP fleet development and water resources: A structured review and way forward

The rapid global growth in the use of renewable energy to reduce GHG emissions and mitigate climate change, through the inclusion of large amounts of PV and wind in existing electricity grids, has highlighted certain challenges. Most critically, their intermittent supply, necessitates flexible dispatchability from other generators in the grid. Currently, few renewable energy technologies offer this dispatchability, with only concentrating solar power (CSP) offering storage. CSP generates electricity from thermal heat, similar to fossil-driven thermal power plants, with the heat-source being inexhaustible concentrated solar irradiance. The thermal process, however, requires cooling, best achieved with a finite resource; water. CSP is ideally suited to areas of high solar irradiation, typically arid and water stressed. The need for water as a source of cooling is often neglected in the planning and development of CSP. This paper identifies water as a constraint to CSP deployment, and explores CSP's potential contribution to generation through the lens of the water-energy nexus. This aids our understanding of how water availability threatens expected CSP production capacity and places natural limits on its sustainable development. For strategic planning of CSP, we therefore propose the inclusion of integrated water resource management in CSP energy infrastructure planning

Water and CSP - A preliminary methodology for strategic water demand assessment

CSP is highly dependent on water resources. Water resources have been shown to be both less abundant and more variable in high DNI areas. The water consumption of CSP varies according to design considerations and spatiotemporally varying conditions. Water-related risks threaten to further exacerbate the costs of CSP generation. Similarly, water demand from CSP poses a potential risk to already stressed water resources. Adequate planning of CSP fleet deployment is thus necessary to mitigate these risks. Such planning must include detailed assessments of both variable water resource availability, and variable water demand from CSP facilities. This paper presents a preliminary methodology for strategic water demand assessment from CSP plants

Optimising the concentrating solar power potential in South Africa through an improved gis analysis

Renewable Energy Technologies are rapidly gaining uptake in South Africa, already having more than 3900 MW operational wind, solar PV, Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) and biogas capacity. CSP has the potential to become a leading Renewable Energy Technology, as it is the only one inherently equipped with the facility for large-scale thermal energy storage for increased dispatchability. There are many studies that aim to determine the potential for CSP development in certain regions or countries. South Africa has a high solar irradiation resource by global standards, but few studies have been carried out to determine the potential for CSP. One such study was conducted in 2009, prior to any CSP plants having been built in South Africa. As part of a broader study to determine the impact of CSP on South Africa's water resources, a geospatial approach was used to optimise this potential based on technological changes and improved spatial data. A tiered approach, using a comprehensive set of criteria to exclude unsuitable areas, was used to allow for the identification of suitable areas, as well as the modelling of electricity generation potential. It was found that there is more than 104 billion m2 of suitable area, with a total theoretical potential of more than 11,000 TWh electricity generating capacity