What can CST deliver to the electricity sector?
The European solar thermal industry can provide green power on demand at utility scale without further delay using proven technology over decades, with a storage duration > 12h at lower costs than renewable electricity stored in batteries or hydrogen. This is the timely answer to the challenge of intermittency of PV and wind at sustainable costs. This is possible via:
- Complementing PV generation after sunset which will contribute to achieve a more ambitious overall deployment of renewables with a higher impact on decarbonisation and prevent overinvestments in non-dispatchable technologies.
- Constructing new innovative CSP plants with large thermal storage capacity in Southern Europe and EU neighbouring countries with the best solar resources.
- Revamping not only existing CSP plants, but also fossil-fired installations with thermal storage facilities allowing a further use of existing generation and grid connection infrastructures.
- Using all cooperation mechanisms provided by the EC between Member States and even with the EU Neighbourhood (Southern/ Eastern).
All this will result in substantially reduced PV curtailments, with an optimised use of natural resources across the continent, allowing shared benefits of bulk storage capacities and new strategic reserves among more Member States.
