It is already known that the world’s very large deserts present a substantial amount of energy-supplying potential. Given the demands on world energy in the 21st century, the potential for harnessing this energy is of huge important. Authors have proposed a future possibility of very large scale photovoltaic power generation (VLS-PV) systems on deserts, which has a capacity of ranging from several megawatts to gigawatts in desert areas, and discussed various kinds of aspects and potentials of the VLS-PV systems.
The objective of this study is to examine and evaluate the feasibility of VLS-PV Systems on desert areas, and to develop practical project proposals for demonstrative research toward realization of the VLS-PV Systems in the future.
For this objective, specific case studies from viewpoints of local, regional and global aspect are carried out. Financial and institutional scenarios and a general instruction for practical project proposals are developed, and considerable future technical options implementing VLS-PV system are analysed. In parallel with these discussions, we’ve been focusing strongly on really implementing VLS-PV projects in desert countries. Toward implementing the project, stakeholders targeted to will be decision makers for VLS-PV projects in desert countries, which may include policy people from governments, utilities, industries, investors, banks, NGOs, international institutions and organisations, media, etc. Our focus is aiming to show them the feasibility and its impact of implementing VLS-PV projects, mainly, from a viewpoint of socio-economic development, and to give recommendations to stakeholders.
This study has been carried out under the activities of IEA/PVPS Task8.