Concentrating Solar Thermal Power Technologies: A Review

This reports on a review on Concentrating Solar Thermal Power (CSP) Technology. It is a renewable energy technology that can become the world's main source of electricity in the future. This technology provides clean, reliable and environmentally friendly energy. CSP systems are divided into line focusing systems and point focusing systems. The later systems produce high temperature concentrations. They also have higher efficiencies compared to their counterparts. However, CSP efficiencies in general need to be improved. There are a number of factors that affect their efficiency and hence the on-going research on how to improve on CSP efficiency. South Africa is in a virtue of using CSP technology as it seems viable in this country due to high average annual Direct Normal Irradiance as experienced in places such as the Northern Cape in South Africa.