UBS Report: Future Bright for Solar Thermal  

The NYT's Green Inc blog has a post on a UBS report on solar thermal power, including some notes on upcoming announcements by Ausra about new power plants - Report: Future Bright for Solar Thermal.

Engineering headaches have hindered the C.S.P. market, as has price: according to UBS, the cost per kilowatt-hour in 2009 is in the 15- to 40-cent range, making this power source more expensive than wind, but on par with photovoltaics. Within a decade or so, UBS projects that C.S.P. will be roughly equivalent to wind energy thanks to technology improvements. ...

Ausra claims it can produce steam for 20 to 30 percent less than parabolic trough systems. “Our technology moves it to the next level,” said the company’s chief executive, Robert Fishman, who added that the Ausra would announce three large projects in the United States, Australia and the Middle East later this fall.

The holy grail of the C.S.P. industry, meanwhile, is the recently announced Desertec Initiative, a monumental European/Middle Eastern plan to build vast solar reflector systems (and wind farms) in the north-African desert over the next several decades.