The power sector is the largest contributor to global CO2 emissions, with power generation representing over 60% of Greenhouse Gas emissions (GHGs). Projections indicate an 80% increase in global electricity demand by 2030, and under Business As Usual scenarios, potentially irreversible changes to our ecosystem. Unless clean energy solutions are deployed with urgency and at scale, CO2 emissions will not be stabilized, and the pace of climate change will continue to accelerate.

There is an emerging global consensus on the need to implement climate change mitigation strategies that will dramatically reduce our dependence on polluting power generation technologies. In addition to the need for climate change mitigation, there is a growing demand for clean energy for a variety of economic and social reasons: rising costs of fossil fuel power generation; security of supply and energy independence; geo-political imperatives; and economic development, wealth and job creation advantages over traditional power generation.



Currently renewable energy represents a small fraction of global power supply—some 2% of total generation, excluding hydro. There are a limited number of technologies capable of making a material contribution to our need for renewable energy in the medium-term. Solar, Hydro, Wind, Geothermal, Wave and Tidal will all play a role in the new energy generation portfolio mix. Owing to a number of economic and technical advantages over renewable energy platforms, Concentraing Solar Power is emerging as one of the most promising sources for large-scale power generation. Because of carbon regulation and fuel supply constraints, the cost of producing electricity from fossil fuels continues to escalate, while the cost of producing clean, renewable energy is falling, making our future energy pathway increasingly clear.

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) is emerging as one of the most efficient and cost-effective ways of harnessing the vast amount of renewable energy available to us. CSP technologies have been in existence at small scale and on an isolated basis since the early 20th century. During the oil crisis of the 1970’s, significant strides were made in the deployment of utility-scale solar thermal plants in the US and elsewhere, and again thanks to more recent commitments from EU governments, CSP has enjoyed a renaissance in some markets. But with the growing global commitment to delivering large-scale clean energy solutions, CSP is poised to become the leading technology for delivering utility-scale power on a global basis.

CSP systems concentrate sunlight to provide heat that is then used to generate electricity. CSP systems fall within four broad technology bands: Parabolic Trough; Power Tower; Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector (CFLR); and Dish Stirling Systems. Parabolic Trough, Power Tower, and CLFR all focus sunlight to heat water and produce steam, which is then converted to electrical energy in a conventional steam turbine generator. Dish Stirling Engines system, of which the SunCatcher is the leading commercial technology, use a large parabolic dish to concentrate sunlight onto a single receiver point above the dish. Within the receiver, a thermal fluid is heated and used to generate electricity in a Stirling engine attached to the receiver. Dish systems are the only CSP technology to use an engine, rather than a steam turbine, to convert heat to electricity.

The SunCatcher™ is the highest efficiency solar thermal solution ever developed, and with two of largest solar parks in the world scheduled to begin construction in 2010, Tessera Solar is changing the way people think about solar power.