Commercializing concentrated solar energy

In Denmark the application of solar panels for district heating production has developed rapidly in recent

years. The total installed capacity was no more than 45.000 m2 in 2009, but reached a dazzling 160.000

m2 by the end of 2011 and with the recent estimate of over 320.000m2 of solar panels installed by the end

of 2012, the market will have endured a 100% annual growth for an on-going three years.

Aalborg CSP predicted the potential for solar energy in a district heating context and initiated, with a point

of departure in a market leader position of sub-supplier for utility scale concentrated solar power (CSP)

plants in southern Europe, a redesign of the conventional CSP parabolic trough technology. The aim of the

redesign was to further develop the technology to match the weather conditions in Denmark and the

system configurations and output demand of district heating plants. The prototype was financed, designed,

developed, produced, erected and commissioned by Aalborg CSP without any external funding. The

system was installed at Thisted Varmeforsyning, and the prototype has recently validated the CSP

technology’s basic technical principles and functionality to be operational in a district-heating context. On

the basis of these validated technical principles the ”Commercializing concentrated solar energy” project

aims to develop an innovative redesign and optimization, which will make the technology ready for

commercialization. The demonstration plant will be the world’s first large scale CSP system for district

heating production, and will provide a series of beneficial attributes for the customers compared with the

traditional solar panels, see 4.1. for a detailed description of CSP and the competitive advantages.

The CSP technology will annually produce 6.212MWh of hot water to the system. The effective utilization

is 8.309 m2 of mirrors and a total of 21.600 m2 of land, which is an 50% increased efficiency compared to

the traditional solar panels, see appendix for a comparison between commercial solar panel plants and

CSP technology: CSP vs. Solar panels.By realizing this demonstration project 20 jobs will be created in

the project supply chain, and 12 jobs within the highly educated segment is created among the partners in

the consortium.The redesigned CSP demonstration plant has a configuration that enables the production of

higher temperatures than required in district heating plants. Under conditions with a higher direct normal

irradiation (DNI) than Denmark, the system can produce high pressure steam. A commercialization of this

technology will therefore open the possibility for a series of industries to effectively utilize solar energy to

meet their process steam demands. The CSP technology will therefore not solely compete with the solar

panels on the district heating market, but open op an entirely new international solar energy market, where

countries with richer DNI can experience a new exploration of the technology.