SOLAR ENERGY

Installing solar power plants in the Mediterranean region

With enough solar energy reaching the earth's surface every hour to provide all the power the world needs for a year, solar power is fast becoming an essential component of the long-term solution to our energy needs. The potential is huge and largely untapped. As solar technologies get cheaper and conventional energy prices rise, it is an increasingly economic choice.

RES offers the installation of solar plants utilising either Photovoltaic power (PV) or Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) in the Mediterranean region. We have the know-how, the resources and the project management capabilities needed to develop, construct and operate solar fields for large scale power generation connected to the grid. Both PV and CSP technologies are particularly efficient in areas with high solar radiation and are therefore particularly attractive in the Mediterranean Region and the Middle East where solar radiation exceeds 5 kWh/m2 per day.

Solar Thermal Power plants use the energy from the sun to generate heat which can be transformed into electricity. Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) technology uses solar collectors to capture and then concentrate the sun's rays into high-temperature thermal energy which drives a conventional power cycle, such as a steam turbine or a Stirling engine, to produce electricity.

The waste heat of CSP plants can be used for sea water desalination and as steam power plants. CSP plants can be combined with fossil energy sources.

Thanks to the increasing demand for clean power and improvements in materials and technology, the revival in this application of thermal solar power is forecast to generate over 6 GW of installed capacity by 2020 in Southern Europe the Middle East & North Africa.

Schott parabolic trough - Photo courtesy of TREC	Solar Trough - Photo courtesy of NREL