Solar energy is getting a lot of attention worldwide, however, the cost of the solar panels are still a cause of concern. We had earlier reported how solar installation for industries in India actually turned out to be expensive, contrast to what was being said. Well, the good news is that the cost of solar thermal energy may come down by half, if Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is to be believed.
The new director of Australian’s solar thermal research initiative said that solar thermal energy will halve in cost by 2020. The reason that solar power is still not seen as a cost effective solution is because of fossil fuel subsidies and the limited hours of solar thermal energy power plants.
According to a The Conversation report, “The CSIRO’s $87 million Australian Solar Thermal Research Initiative (ASTRI), which brings together the country’s top researchers in the field, aims to make solar thermal energy cheaper by developing new, more efficient technology and finding ways to reduce capital costs.”
ASTRI’s new director, Dr Manuel J Blanco feels that the research centre would cut the cost of solar thermal energy to 12 cents a kilowatt hour by 2020, down from 25 cents a kilowatt hour now. He said, “The situation right now is that even though this technology had its start in the United States in the 1990s, it wasn’t until 2005 there was been a commercial market for this technology. But this technology has a lot of potential and there is a lot of momentum right now.”
The body is looking for ways to cut down the cost of developing solar power plants by up to 50 per cent, boost the plants’ operating hours by 50 per cent to sell more electricity to the grid, improve plant efficiencies and reduce operating and maintenance costs, the report further stated.
Coming to countries that he feels can help in attaining these values, he said, “Overall you have a large potential for solar radiation and you are located in a part of the world near a lot of other countries that are going to deploy this technology like India, South Africa and China. There’s a lot of demand emerging in developing countries for solar thermal energy.”
