Many of the locations that are well-suited to the Seawater Greenhouse are also ideal for Concentrated Solar Power (CSP), and there are a number of potential synergies with combining both processes. Concentrated solar power is increasingly seen as one of the most promising forms of renewable energy, producing electricity from sunlight at a fraction of the cost of photovoltaics. Distributing this energy by means of high voltage DC power lines, rather than the more conventional AC, would allow northern Europe to be supplied with electricity with minimal transmission loss.
The principle of CSP involves using reflectors to focus the sun’s energy to boil water which is used to drive a conventional steam turbine. The most common types are the parabolic trough collector, the solar tower and the parabolic dish. The first of these involves a trough which rotates in a single plane in order to follow the sun. The second and third types involve tracking two axis reflectors that focus the energy on a single point. The efficiency of CSP in converting heat to electricity is typically between 20% and 30% and the amount of energy generated is dependent on the solar intensity of the location. Much of the Sahara receives over 800W/m2 and a 150,000km2 installation of CSP, occupying around 3% of the Sahara, could provide the world’s current demand for energy of all kinds.