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Solar
Socioeconomic Impact of Solar Thermal Electricity Deployment in Spain –
A Brief Review
a report by
Natalia Caldés, Marta Santamaría and Rosa Sáez
Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT)
Over the past few years, Spain’s solar thermal electricity favourable initiatives and investments would lead to 500MW
deployment has been remarkable, mainly due to its regulatory capacity installed by 2010. According to this hypothetical scenario, it
environment and favourable climatic conditions. In the near future, was assumed that 80% of such capacity would be met with
this trend is likely to increase due to the potential decline in costs parabolic trough plants while 20% would be met by solar tower
of solar thermal energy, upcoming technological progress and the power plants.
urge to diversify Spain’s current energy mix, which greatly depends
on oil imports. This favourable context has brought forth an Input–Output Methodology
upsurge in solar projects – mainly using either a central receiver or The I–O methodology, which was first developed by Wassily Leontief
parabolic trough technologies – and it is expected that the potential in the late 1930s, has been widely used to trace out a portrait of the
capacity will exceed 500MW, which coincides with the Spanish national economic structure. Based on the I–O symmetrical table,
Renewable Energy Plan (PER) goal for solar thermal installed the matrix of coefficients summarises the interdependencies between
capacity by 2010. production sectors
2
and is used to analyse the economic activity and
employment impacts induced by an increase in the demand of any
The benefits associated with solar thermal electricity deployment are particular economic sector.
3
varied in nature and should be taken into account in order to
compensate for its higher private production costs compared with When conducting an I–O analysis to estimate the socioeconomic
fossil fuel technologies, and therefore help policy-makers design solar effects that a solar thermal power plant has on the demand for goods
thermal energy support policies. Among other environmental impacts, and services, as well as on employment generation, it is possible to
CO
2
emission as well as energy consumption reductions are some of analyse two different effects: direct effects accrued due to the
the most remarkable benefits.
1
However, other socioeconomic increase in the demand of those industries that directly provide goods
impacts should also be taken into account, namely contributions to and services required to construct, operate and maintain the plant
stimulating the economy and creating new jobs. (dismantling costs have not been included in the analysis), and indirect
effects that originate due to the effect that such new investment has
In this context, this work attempts to estimate the socioeconomic on new flows of purchases and/or sales among other productive
impacts of increasing the installed solar thermal energy power sectors in the economy. A more detailed description of the
capacity in Spain by using an input–output (I–O) analysis. This work methodology can be found in Appendix 1.
enlarges the current body of literature in two ways: first by gathering
cost data regarding the construction and operation of the solar Compared with other alternative analytical methods, the most
thermal power plants currently in operation, and second by estimating relevant advantages are solar thermal energy’s simplicity, intuitive
direct and indirect effects on the demand for goods and services as understanding, basic software requirements and acceptability among
well as employment generation. the scientific community. However, among its limitations, it is worth
mentioning its constant technical coefficients, which do not always
In order to estimate such effects, two scenarios are considered. take into account technological improvements, import substitution,
The first considers the individual impacts derived from the change in consumption patterns and relative price variations over
construction and operation of two solar thermal power plants with time.
4
Moreover, homogeneity among sectors as well as lack of
the following specifications: production capacity limitations is assumed.
A 50MW power plant comprising 624 parabolic trough Data
collectors. This plant uses synthetic oil as transfer fluid and
molten salts to create a seven-hour storage system. In line with the Solar Thermal Plant Costs
current regulatory framework, 15% of total output is generated by Based on actual cost data of plants currently in operation in Spain, this
natural gas. section presents a summary of the main data and assumptions used to
A 17MW central solar tower power plant comprising 2,750 construct the plant as well as operation and maintenance cost vectors
heliostats. This plant uses molten salts as both a transfer fluid and associated with each of the analysed power plants.
5
a storage system. This power plant occupies 150Has and, as in the
previous case, generates 15% of its electricity from natural gas. For a parabolic trough power plant (50MW), of the total investment
costs (€265,837), solar field accounts for 46% of the total
The second scenario replicates the PER installed capacity goal for investment, power block 21%, storage 13%, construction 10% and
solar thermal power. Based on this objective, the upcoming the remaining engineering costs and contingencies 10%. With
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