The molten salt tower concentrated solar power station was recently put into production in Dunhuang, China. The power station concentrates sunlight to activate the molten salt deep down below the earth’s surface and generate electricity from thermal energy. To ensure the continuous operation of the station, thermal storage system is in use to provide energy for electricity generation at night. With its high-power generation rate, the concentrated solar power (CSP) is considered as an emerging energy application technology with the potential of being the base load power source.

Although adopting CSP would induce extra costs which we call the green premium, an additional cost of using clean energy over those with higher greenhouse gas emissions, some rural areas in Africa and Asia may have a faster adoption of clean energy than other developed countries due to the unstable power supply caused by poor infrastructure. Fossil fuels are no longer the best option for its cost and impact to the environment while clean energy would be the most ideal option for building the power source in developing countries.

Learn more from the full article (in Chinese only) written by Kenny Siu, Senior Advisor of AEC Group, published on Sing Pao on 18 October.