Analysing the barriers and drivers to concentrating solar power in the European Union. Policy implications

The aim of this paper is to empirically identify and rank the drivers and barriers to the deployment of concentrated solar power (CSP) in the EU in the past and the future at two different levels of analysis: System/grid or macro level and project/investment or micro level. An expert elicitation and an investors’ survey were carried out for this purpose. The results differ across the two levels (experts and investors), time frames and CSP designs. Specifically, deployment support, policy framework conditions and a proven technology have been major drivers of CSP deployment in the past, according to the expert elicitation. Dispatchability is regarded as the main future driver of the technology, followed by policy framework conditions and complementarity with PV. The survey of investors highlights the relevance of dispatchability, key technology and investors’ features as drivers, and stress the importance of administrative processes, construction permits and grid connection as barriers. The results suggest the need to combine different policies in order to activate the drivers and/or mitigate the barriers.