Solar Thermal Development Pipeline
Source: Emerging Energy Research
Emerging Energy Research released a report in November, 2007 detailing the state of the concentrated solar (or solar thermal) harvest development pipeline globally. This report is available for download at $3750 per copy. As you can see from the graph above there is a great deal of activity in the sector, though it’s backend loaded with respect to when the plants are due to come online. The other interesting aspect of this is the technology, parabolic trough is dominating, but linear fresnel and receiver type configurations are factoring into development to some extent.
Parabolic trough solar thermal fields lining our deserts have the potential to fulfill most of our energy needs.