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CSP INDUSTRY
It was a watershed year for industry as companies adapted to the
shift of CSP markets. The continued stagnation of the Spanish
market, along with a long predicted slowdown in the United
States, resulted in increased capacity building in new focus
markets. Established CSP players created new partnerships and
invested in assets in new markets, while local industrial activity
emerged in South Africa, the MENA region and China. 30
Recognising CSP’s potential for local manufacturing, engineering
and skills development, many countries – including Morocco,
Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates –
continued to promote or enforce local content requirements in
their CSP programmes during 2015. 31
Abengoa, the industry’s largest developer and builder, faced
bankruptcy proceedings before reaching an agreement with its
creditors and avoiding liquidation in early 2016. 32 The company’s
rising debt was partially a result of Spanish energy reforms enacted
in 2013, which reduced feed-in tariffs for CSP facilities. 33 As of early
2016, the company was expected to dispose of equity in several
CSP facilities as it restructured its operations over the year. 34
Nonetheless, Abengoa and Saudia Arabia’s ACWA Power led
the market in ownership of projects that either commenced
operations or were under construction during 2015. 35 As a
developer, owner and operator, ACWA continued to make
strong inroads into the global CSP market, most notably through
projects in South Africa and Morocco. 36
Other top companies in 2015, including those engaged in
construction, operation and/or manufacturing, were Rioglass
Solar (Belgium); Acciona, ACS Cobra, Sener and TSK (all Spain);
and Brightsource, GE and Solar Reserve (all United States). 37
Leading manufacturer Schott Solar (Germany) sold its
CSP receiver business to Rioglass Solar, the world’s largest
manufacturer of CSP mirrors with plants in Chile, Israel, South
Africa, Spain and the United States. 38 Rioglass Solar previously
purchased the CSP receiver business of Siemens (Germany)
in 2013. 39 GE acquired the power business of Alstom (France)
– including the company’s CSP business – towards the end of
2015. 40
Developers continued to focus on larger plants, with many facilities
exceeding 100 MW in size. South Africa increased the size limit of
CSP plants under its Independent Power Producer Procurement
programme from 100 MW to 150 MW. 41 These larger plants are
being developed increasingly in water-scarce regions, so most
new facilities are making use of dry cooling technology to reduce
water consumption as well as environmental impact. 42
Almost all new CSP plants are being developed with TES systems,
and global storage capacity is on the rise. The US Crescent
Dunes facility represented a major step forward in this regard:
with 10 hours of storage, the plant is capable of generating power
at any time of day or night for half of the year. 43 In Morocco, the
storage capacity planned for the Noor II facility, currently under
construction, was increased from three to seven hours. 44
Faced by competition from solar PV due to its rapidly declining
prices, the CSP industry has focused increasingly on maximising
value through TES systems that provide dispatchable power. 45
Research conducted by the US National Renewable Energy
Laboratory (NREL) on California power markets found that a
large fraction of the value of CSP operating with TES appears
to be derived from its ability to provide firm system capacity;
this is especially the case where the penetration of variable
renewables is high, or where there is a shortage of baseload
capacity. 46
Under South Africa’s competitive bidding process, decreasing
price caps coupled with strong competition resulted in a
reduction of CSP bid prices by nearly 40% from round one (in late
2011) to round three (in late 2013) of the procurement process. 47
This trend was expected to continue with the announcement of
new preferred bidders, originally scheduled for early 2016. 48 In
Morocco, the next phases of the Noor Ouarzazate CSP complex
will operate at significantly lower tariffs than other operational
facilities in the region as a result of cheaper debt and learnings
from the first phase. 49 A shift to cheaper component suppliers
and the establishment of partnerships between leading CSP
technology companies and Chinese counterparts also are
helping to reduce costs. 50
R&D in the CSP sector is being driven by both private and
public entities, often through partnerships between leading CSP
firms or between private groups and government programmes.
Improvements and cost reductions in TES continue to be strong
focus areas of these activities. Related research programmes,
some of which focused on novel storage media such as sand
and concrete, were under way during 2015 in several countries,
including Italy, the United States and the United Arab Emirates. 51
R&D programmes backed by the United States and the United
Arab Emirates concentrated on improving CSP efficiency
through the application of higher-temperature processes, which
allow the more efficient transfer of heat and conversion of energy.
Related research in 2015 was focused largely on the development
of materials capable of housing high-temperature processes. 52
Other research was directed towards incremental cost
reductions in CSP components, including heliostats and mirrors;
the reduction of water usage in both steam/power generation
and mirror cleaning; and the reduction of land requirements for
CSP systems. 53
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