What is thermosolar power or concentrating solar power (CSP)?
What is thermosolar power, concentrating solar power or “desert energy”? Thermosolar energy means generating electricity from the heat of the sun, and not, as photovoltaic panels do, from sunlight. Since a large quantity of solar heat is required, evidently this must be done in the desert. The process requires a detour: first, steam must be produced so that electricity can be produced using a conventional steam turbine. Mirrors which concentrate the light of the sun are used to produce the steam, in one of two ways: in the first, the concentration happens “in line” – for example in a mirror trench, where mirrors up to 100 metres long concentrate sunlight on liquid-filled tubes. The other technique concentrates sunlight on a single point, in solar towers or dishes. The important point is that these mirror installations work only with direct sunlight, because diffuse light cannot be concentrated. The first reflective plants were built in Paris in about 1880, and were followed by other ex
