Trittin: Research pays off
German research institutes and companies are in the top league in developing solar thermal power plants. These plants, equipped with special mirror systems, bundle sun rays at their centre and the heat concentrated is used to generate power. "Research pays off. It is also a result of our support of research that the worldwide best solar power plants are put on the market by German companies", noted Federal Environment Minister Juergen Trittin. In sunny countries solar thermal power plants are the most efficient technology to harvest directly the energy generated by the sun. They will play a major role in future energy supply.
Within the framework of the Federal Government future investment programme Future the Federal Ministry for the Environment made available more than ten million euros over the past three years for research and development of solar thermal power generation. Today in Berlin, at the end of the programme the Federal Ministry for the Environment and the KfW-Banking Group presented progress and success of the projects supported. One of the projects presented is the so-called parabolic trough technology where curved mirrors arranged to form a trough focus sun rays on a centrally fixed absorber tube to generate steam. Further projects presented are those based on the solar tower concept and solar thermal plants for small-scale decentralised power generation. "We want to develop these new technologies to a state where they can be placed on the market, devise new financing instruments and bring the process of international cooperation forward" said Trittin. A first success under this strategy is the fact that the German company "Solar Millenium AG" will start building the first European commercial parabolic trough power plant in Spain this year.
The Federal Minister for the Environment initiated the so-called "Global Market Initiative" (GMI) to speed up the introduction of solar thermal power plants onto the market. This initiative aims at installing a capacity of 5 000 Megawatt of solar thermal power generation in southern countries over the next ten years. The vast potential of solar thermal power plants and first results will be presented at the international conference for renewable energies "renewables 2004" which is due to take place in Bonn in June. The conference will be a further important step towards the introduction of the technology onto the market as it can serve as a forum to form strategic development partnerships.