Market Facilitation Partnership for Concentrating Solar Power Technologies

This Partnership was founded during the "International Executive Conference on Expanding the Market for Concentrating Solar Power" on 19 -20 June 2002 in Berlin. The presentations and discussions resulted in the following common understanding about the qualities of concentrating solar power (CSP) :

 CSP provides sustainable, clean, affordable and reliable energy supply over a range of sizes from 10 kilowatts to 200 megawatts.

 CSP plants have proven in more than 100 accumulated operating plant years to be the most efficient technology for direct use of the inexhaustible solar energy.

 CSP plants can provide dispatchable power with back up via thermal storage and/or the hybrid mode.

 CSP helps to minimize climate change impacts by replacing fossil energy sources.

 CSP is an appropriate technology for supporting independence from fossil resources, in particular for developing countries.

A promising base of more than 10 CSP power project opportunities was reviewed by the members of the partnership at the conference. Realising these projects will allow a significant reduction in power generation costs.