THERMOELECTRIC SOLAR ENERGY. TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The European strategies on energy have been searching for years to reduce the dependency of Europe from fossil fuels. Underlying this effort, there exist geopolitical, economic, environmental reasons and the reality that oil reservoirs will dry out some day. Renewable energies have become a milestone of this strategy, now that their huge potential has emerged after years of uncertainty. One of the better developed renewable sources, which is nearer to commercial maturity is solar-thermal energy. In this paper, the current state of this technology will be described as well as the developments that may be expected in the short and mid terms. The reader will acquire a picture of the current state of the market, of the technical challenges already achieved and of the remaining ones, many of them, as will show, only enduring for months or a few years to come.