Briefing: Concentrating solar power compared with flat-plate collectors, south-east Asia

Since late 2009 Thailand has been experiencing a surge in large-scale deployment of solar power. Over 3 GW of solar power plants have been proposed to the national electricity authorities under the concessional power tariff, equivalent to approximately 10% of current installed national power generation capacity. Operating solar plants to date mainly use ‘flat-plate collector’ photovoltaic panels. However, a significant majority of the new proposed plants are based on various concentrating solar thermo-electric power technologies, where moving reflective collector surfaces concentrate the direct component of sunlight onto a thermal receiver, for subsequent conversion of heat to electric power. This briefing article compares key solar technology types for application in climates similar to Thailand, including consideration of newly commercial technologies.