IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v39y2011i7p4391-4398.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Costs of reducing water use of concentrating solar power to sustainable levels: Scenarios for North Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Damerau, Kerstin
  • Williges, Keith
  • Patt, Anthony G.
  • Gauché, Paul

Abstract

Concentrating solar power (CSP) has the potential to become a leading sustainable energy technology for the European electricity system. In order to reach a substantial share in the energy mix, European investment in CSP appears most profitable in North Africa, where solar potential is significantly higher than in southern Europe. As well as sufficient solar irradiance, however, the majority of today's CSP plants also require a considerable amount of water, primarily for cooling purposes. In this paper we examine water usage associated with CSP in North Africa, and the cost penalties associated with technologies that could reduce those needs. We inspect four representative sites to compare the ecological and economical drawbacks from conventional and alternative cooling systems, depending on the local environment, and including an outlook with climate change to the mid-century. Scaling our results up to a regional level indicates that the use of wet cooling technologies would likely be unsustainable. Dry cooling systems, as well as sourcing of alternative water supplies, would allow for sustainable operation. Their cost penalty would be minor compared to the variance in CSP costs due to different average solar irradiance values.

Suggested Citation

  • Damerau, Kerstin & Williges, Keith & Patt, Anthony G. & Gauché, Paul, 2011. "Costs of reducing water use of concentrating solar power to sustainable levels: Scenarios for North Africa," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 4391-4398, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:39:y:2011:i:7:p:4391-4398
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421511003429
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kevin Ummel, 2010. "Concentrating Solar Power in China and India: A Spatial Analysis of Technical Potential and the Cost of Deployment," Working Papers id:2807, eSocialSciences.
    2. Zhou Yuan & Richard S.J. Tol, 2004. "Evaluating the costs of desalination and water transport," Working Papers FNU-41, Research unit Sustainability and Global Change, Hamburg University, revised Dec 2004.
    3. Kevin Ummel, 2010. "Concentrating Solar Power in China and India: A Spatial Analysis of Technical Potential and the Cost of Deployment," Working Papers 219, Center for Global Development.
    4. Håkan Tropp and Anders Jägerskog, 2006. "Water Scarcity Challenges in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)," Human Development Occasional Papers (1992-2007) HDOCPA-2006-31, Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
    5. Williges, Keith & Lilliestam, Johan & Patt, Anthony, 2010. "Making concentrated solar power competitive with coal: The costs of a European feed-in tariff," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 3089-3097, June.
    6. World Bank, 2007. "Making the Most of Scarcity : Accountability for Better Water Management Results in the Middle East and North Africa," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6845.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chen, Hao & Liu, Simin & Liu, Qiufeng & Shi, Xueli & Wei, Wendong & Han, Rong & Küfeoğlu, Sinan, 2021. "Estimating the impacts of climate change on electricity supply infrastructure: A case study of China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    2. Xu, Xinhai & Vignarooban, K. & Xu, Ben & Hsu, K. & Kannan, A.M., 2016. "Prospects and problems of concentrating solar power technologies for power generation in the desert regions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 1106-1131.
    3. Boukelia, T.E. & Bouraoui, A. & Laouafi, A. & Djimli, S. & Kabar, Y., 2020. "3E (Energy-Exergy-Economic) comparative study of integrating wet and dry cooling systems in solar tower power plants," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    4. Köberle, Alexandre C. & Gernaat, David E.H.J. & van Vuuren, Detlef P., 2015. "Assessing current and future techno-economic potential of concentrated solar power and photovoltaic electricity generation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 739-756.
    5. Tarun Kumar Aseri & Chandan Sharma & Tara C. Kandpal, 2022. "Condenser cooling technologies for concentrating solar power plants: a review," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 4511-4565, April.
    6. Labordena, Mercè & Patt, Anthony & Bazilian, Morgan & Howells, Mark & Lilliestam, Johan, 2017. "Impact of political and economic barriers for concentrating solar power in Sub-Saharan Africa," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 52-72.
    7. Corral, Nicolás & Anrique, Nicolás & Fernandes, Dalila & Parrado, Cristóbal & Cáceres, Gustavo, 2012. "Power, placement and LEC evaluation to install CSP plants in northern Chile," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(9), pages 6678-6685.
    8. Purohit, Ishan & Purohit, Pallav & Shekhar, Shashaank, 2013. "Evaluating the potential of concentrating solar power generation in Northwestern India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 157-175.
    9. Purohit, Ishan & Purohit, Pallav, 2017. "Technical and economic potential of concentrating solar thermal power generation in India," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 648-667.
    10. Sharma, Chandan & Sharma, Ashish K. & Mullick, Subhash C. & Kandpal, Tara C., 2015. "Assessment of solar thermal power generation potential in India," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 902-912.
    11. Anthony Patt & Stefan Pfenninger & Johan Lilliestam, 2013. "Vulnerability of solar energy infrastructure and output to climate change," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 121(1), pages 93-102, November.
    12. Lamnatou, Chr. & Chemisana, D., 2017. "Concentrating solar systems: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and environmental issues," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 916-932.
    13. George A. Gonzalez, 2016. "Transforming Energy: Solving Climate Change with Technology Policy . New York : Cambridge University Press . 360 pages. ISBN 9781107614970, $29.99 paperback. Anthony Patt , 2015 ," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 33(1), pages 111-113, January.
    14. Lilliestam, Johan & Bielicki, Jeffrey M. & Patt, Anthony G., 2012. "Comparing carbon capture and storage (CCS) with concentrating solar power (CSP): Potentials, costs, risks, and barriers," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 447-455.
    15. Van de Graaf, Thijs & Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2014. "Thinking big: Politics, progress, and security in the management of Asian and European energy megaprojects," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 16-27.
    16. Madhlopa, Amos & Sparks, Debbie & Keen, Samantha & Moorlach, Mascha & Krog, Pieter & Dlamini, Thuli, 2015. "Optimization of a PV–wind hybrid system under limited water resources," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 324-331.
    17. Boukelia, T.E. & Ghellab, A. & Laouafi, A. & Bouraoui, A. & Kabar, Y., 2020. "Cooling performances time series of CSP plants: Calculation and analysis using regression and ANN models," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 809-827.
    18. del Sol, Felipe & Sauma, Enzo, 2013. "Economic impacts of installing solar power plants in northern Chile," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 489-498.
    19. Chen, Fuying & Yang, Qing & Zheng, Niting & Wang, Yuxuan & Huang, Junling & Xing, Lu & Li, Jianlan & Feng, Shuanglei & Chen, Guoqian & Kleissl, Jan, 2022. "Assessment of concentrated solar power generation potential in China based on Geographic Information System (GIS)," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 315(C).
    20. Palenzuela, Patricia & Roca, Lidia & Asfand, Faisal & Patchigolla, Kumar, 2022. "Experimental assessment of a pilot scale hybrid cooling system for water consumption reduction in CSP plants," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xiaoyang Sun & Baosheng Zhang & Xu Tang & Benjamin C. McLellan & Mikael Höök, 2016. "Sustainable Energy Transitions in China: Renewable Options and Impacts on the Electricity System," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-20, November.
    2. van den Broek, Machteld & Berghout, Niels & Rubin, Edward S., 2015. "The potential of renewables versus natural gas with CO2 capture and storage for power generation under CO2 constraints," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 1296-1322.
    3. Duvenhage, D. Frank & Brent, Alan C. & Stafford, William H.L., 2019. "The need to strategically manage CSP fleet development and water resources: A structured review and way forward," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 813-825.
    4. Li, Yuqiang & Liao, Shengming & Rao, Zhenghua & Liu, Gang, 2014. "A dynamic assessment based feasibility study of concentrating solar power in China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 34-42.
    5. Malagueta, Diego & Szklo, Alexandre & Soria, Rafael & Dutra, Ricardo & Schaeffer, Roberto & Moreira Cesar Borba, Bruno Soares, 2014. "Potential and impacts of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) integration in the Brazilian electric power system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 223-235.
    6. Battaglini, Antonella & Komendantova, Nadejda & Brtnik, Patricia & Patt, Anthony, 2012. "Perception of barriers for expansion of electricity grids in the European Union," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 254-259.
    7. Donald F. Larson & Julian Lampietti & Christophe Gouel & Carlo Cafiero & John Roberts, 2014. "Food Security and Storage in the Middle East and North Africa," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 28(1), pages 48-73.
    8. Helena Naber & Raffaello Cervigni, 2010. "Achieving Sustainable Development in Jordan," World Bank Publications - Reports 21890, The World Bank Group.
    9. Ray Bush, 2016. "Family farming in the Near East and North Africa," Working Papers 151, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth.
    10. Lilliestam, Johan & Bielicki, Jeffrey M. & Patt, Anthony G., 2012. "Comparing carbon capture and storage (CCS) with concentrating solar power (CSP): Potentials, costs, risks, and barriers," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 447-455.
    11. Tala Qtaishat, 2013. "Impact of Water Reallocation on the Economy in the Fertile Crescent," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 27(10), pages 3765-3774, August.
    12. Zhang, M.M. & Zhang, C. & Liu, L.Y. & Zhou, D.Q., 2020. "Is it time to launch grid parity in the Chinese solar photovoltaic industry? Evidence from 335 cities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    13. Komendantova, Nadejda & Schinko, Thomas & Patt, Anthony, 2019. "De-risking policies as a substantial determinant of climate change mitigation costs in developing countries: Case study of the Middle East and North African region," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 404-411.
    14. Hamilton, Jacqueline M., 2007. "Coastal landscape and the hedonic price of accommodation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(3-4), pages 594-602, May.
    15. Damien Bazin & Nouri Chtourou & Amna Omri, 2019. "Risk management and policy implications for concentrating solar power technology investments in Tunisia," Post-Print hal-02061788, HAL.
    16. Coronas, Sergio & Martín, Helena & de la Hoz, Jordi & García de Vicuña, Luis & Castilla, Miguel, 2021. "MONTE-CARLO probabilistic valuation of concentrated solar power systems in Spain under the 2014 retroactive regulatory framework," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    17. Steinbuks, Jevgenijs & Satija, Gaurav & Zhao, Fu, 2017. "Sustainability of solar electricity: The role of endogenous resource substitution and cross-sectoral responses," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 218-232.
    18. Massetti, Emanuele & Ricci, Elena Claire, 2013. "An assessment of the optimal timing and size of investments in concentrated solar power," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 186-203.
    19. Zolfaghari, Mehdi & Jariani, Farzaneh, 2020. "Water-Energy-Food Nexus in the Middle East and North African Countries (MENA)," MPRA Paper 104583, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Mokhtar Guizani, 2016. "Storm Water Harvesting in Saudi Arabia: a Multipurpose Water Management Alternative," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 30(5), pages 1819-1833, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:39:y:2011:i:7:p:4391-4398. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.