Thermal solar converts sunlight into thermal energy, heating up water to generate steam that, in turn, spins a turbine to generate electricity. While there are many kinds of plants that utilize the power of the sun in this way, they all utilize mirrors to reflect and concentrate sunlight on to a single point. 

Heat is easier to store than electricity, so thermal solar plants have the benefit of generating electricity that can be stored and used later, without the need for additional battery technologies, for example. Additionally, because thermal solar generates very high temperatures, it can also be used to replace fossil fuels in the production of steel and cement, for example.

Thermal solar requires much more land than solar panels to operate efficiently, and has to be installed at the utility scale. It also needs quite a bit of water to operate, which may be a challenge in the future, as the climate crisis causes more and more extreme droughts.  

While thermal solar is expensive to install, it is cheap to run and much more flexible than many other renewable technologies. With that in mind, government and industry support for installing thermal solar could greatly increase its adoption.

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• Solar thermal power plant (Energy Education) 

• Solar  (International Energy Agency, IEA)

• Rapidly Scale Up Zero Carbon Electricity Generation (Systems Change Lab)

• This company helps women to become solar entrepreneurs (World Economic Forum)

• Talk to your energy supplier about switching to solar powered electricity, and see if your company can do the same. 

• Contact your elected officials to express your support for solar energy programs and policies, such as motivation for solar installation or funding for solar research and development.