Optimising the Concentrating Solar Power Potential in South Africa through an Improved GIS Analysis

Abstract

Renewable Energy Technologies are rapidly gaining uptake in South Africa, already having more than 3900 MW operational wind, solar PV, Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) and biogas capacity. CSP has the potential to become a leading Renewable Energy Technology, as it is the only one inherently equipped with the facility for large-scale thermal energy storage for increased dispatchability. There are many studies that aim to determine the potential for CSP development in certain regions or countries. South Africa has a high solar irradiation resource by global standards, but few studies have been carried out to determine the potential for CSP. One such study was conducted in 2009, prior to any CSP plants having been built in South Africa. As part of a broader study to determine the impact of CSP on South Africa’s water resources, a geospatial approach was used to optimise this potential based on technological changes and improved spatial data. A tiered approach, using a comprehensive set of criteria to exclude unsuitable areas, was used to allow for the identification of suitable areas, as well as the modelling of electricity generation potential. It was found that there is more than 104 billion m2 of suitable area, with a total theoretical potential of more than 11,000 TWh electricity generating capacity.

Water and CSP—Linking CSP Water Demand Models and National Hydrology Data to Sustainably Manage CSP Development and Water Resources in Arid Regions

“…A high-level efficiency model (HLEM) was developed to calculate water demand from CSP plants based on validated monthly efficiency calculations and assumptions [24]. The model calculates the monthly performance of Parabolic Trough (PT) and Central Receiver (CR) CSP plants, with either dry or wet cooling, at any location, as identified in [22], at a scale of 1 x 1 km. The HLEM requires the monthly input data shown in Table 2.…”

“…Thereafter, the question of where (geographically) CSP is likely to be developed was answered [22]. The rationale behind addressing this question is that CSP, irrespective of the amount of CSP adopted, will impact water resources at specific locations, and therefore these locations need to be identified and considered in the final analysis.…”

GIS-based Spatial Autocorrelation Queen Contiguity Order-One Analysis of the Renewable Energy Consumption and Production of African Countries with Economic and Environmental Indices

“…Geographic information system (GIS) technology is being used more in analysing patterns in many areas of applications, including renewable energy (RE) (Aydin et al, 2010;Resch et al, 2014;Wei-Chieh et al, 2019). The use of GIS-based trend analysis provides useful insights into the spatial distribution and temporal fluctuations in renewable energy consumption and production across various countries in Africa (Baloyi et al, 2017;Duvenhage et al, 2020;Mentis et al, 2017;Mokgalaka et al, 2013). This methodology enables the detection of regions with significant capacity for generating renewable energy, as well as regions experiencing a growing need for renewable energy sources.…”

Assessment of concentrated solar power generation potential in China based on Geographic Information System (GIS)

“…[34,49,58,59,60,61]. The upper and lower limits of solar-to-electric conversion efficiency were used to calculate the interval value of power generation.…”

“…Parameters of different concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies. PTC -parabolic trough collector, LFC -linear Fresnel collector, CRS -central receiver system, PDS -parabolic dish system[34,49,58,59,60,61].…”