Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) and its prospect in Bangladesh

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) is a promising technology for power generation in which the solar radiation is concentrated to generate high temperature for producing steam in a solar thermal power plant. No fossil fuel is used in this technology; therefore no greenhouse gases are emitted. With an average annual Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) of 2,000 kWh/m² the area required to generate 100 MWe of electricity is about 2 km². Bangladesh receives an average annual DNI of nearly 1,900 kWh/m² which is sufficient to operate a CSP plant. By the year 2015 the capital cost of CSP plant will become $3,800/kWe. As there is no fuel cost in CSP, this can be an attractive choice to mitigate the power crisis of Bangladesh. In this paper the prospect of utilizing CSP in Bangladesh has been focused.