Market uptake of concentrating solar power in Europe. Model-based analysis of drivers and policy trade-offs. Deliverable 8.2 of the Horizon2020 project MUSTEC

We conducted a model-based analysis evaluating the role of CSP in the EU electricity system up to 2050. In particular, we analysed how cooperation, sector coupling, electricity demand levels, underlying RES policy concepts and pathways, and infrastructural developments/prerequisites impact the market uptake of CSP in the EU. Our results show, that cooperation among European countries leads to higher expansions of CSP power plants than the pathway following national preferences. Sufficiently high climate ambitions are another enabler of CSP development, because they hinder the use of fossil power plants as a backup of fluctuating renewables and supply of electricity demand exceeding the realizable potential of other renewables. Hence, CSP with its additional advantage of dispatchability becomes more important under such conditions.