The Global Concentrated Solar Power market accounted for $5.57 billion in 2018 and is expected to reach $14.84 billion by 2027 growing at a CAGR of 11.5% during the forecast period.
Some of the key factors influencing market growth include growing environmental concerns over carbon emissions and efforts to reduce air pollution, increase in government support for the adoption of renewable technologies, rise in energy demand & capability to supply power without CO2 emission. However, the higher cost of generation compared to other renewable technologies is restricting market growth.
Concentrated solar power energy is the generation of electricity via mirrors to concentrate the sunrays to the temperature varying between 400 and 1,000 C. This energy is then usually employed in various applications such as heating fluid, mainly water or oil, which in turn produces steam or hot air. The steam produced is used to drive turbines connected to a generator to generate electricity. There are different types of mirror shapes and sun-tracking methods to provide useful energy, but all of them work under the same principle of driving a heat engine to generate electricity that can then be fed into the grid. Thus, concentrated solar power energy is a carbon-free source of electricity and is best suited to regions with strong radiation such as Southern Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East, South Africa, parts of India, China, Southern U.S., and Australia.
Amongst technology, the parabolic trough segment led the overall concentrating solar power market during the forecast period. A parabolic trough is one of the oldest technologies used to generate electricity from concentrated solar power. All parabolic trough plants used presently are “hybrids,” and they utilize fossil fuel to supplement the solar output during low solar radiation periods. These systems are applicable in all types of end-user industries such as utilities, Enhanced oil recovery, and other end-users such as mining and desalination among others. Parabolic trough technology is the most commercialized and mature technology in the CSP technology arena.
By Geography, The Asia-Pacific concentrated solar power market offers lucrative opportunities for key manufacturers, owing to rapid installation capacity of solar energy to increase renewable generation. Besides, China is actively boosting the growth of the market to cope up with its severe pollution problems and develop its domestic manufacturing industry. Furthermore, the availability of low labour has led to an increase in energy production through concentrated solar power, which fuels the growth of the market in the region.
Some of the key players in global concentrated solar power market are Shams Power, ACWA Power, Frenell GmbH, Archimede Solar Energy, Abengoa Solar, S.A., Baysolar CSP, Esolar, Inc., TSK Flagsol Engineering GmbH, Torresol Energy, Brightsource Energy, Inc., Cobra Energia, General Electric, Siemens AG, Soltigua, GlassPoint Solar, Solarreserve, LLC, Nexans, Aalborg CSP A/S., Chiyoda Corporation, and Novatec Solar.