Rapidly deteriorating environmental conditions of our planet due to a number of factors such as industrial growth, continuous deforestation and ever increasing number of vehicles have rung an alarm bell that if no effective steps are taken to conserve the ecological balance of earth soon enough, it might well lead us to a bleak future when the things would have gone bad beyond repair. Fossil fuels are the primary source of energy to cater to the needs of humanity worldwide, which is possibly the most challenging issue that hinders us from entering a totally eco-friendly era. Therefore, a number of eco-friendly renewable sources of energy are being explored and emphasized at, out of which solar energy is the most prominent and easily available.

Pike Research, a research and analysis firm has announced to launch a new study report that states that the global market for Concentrated Solar Power (CSP (News - Alert)) systems will touch the figure of $4.9 billion by the year 2020; while it will dramatically rise from $2.1 billion in 2012 to $5.1 billion in 2013, further it will see a gradual fall to $2.0 billion by 2016 before seeing a high rise again afterwards, suggests the study.

Around the year 2004, a number of key policies had been announced to boost the CSP sector, which helped in pushing the overall CSP market ahead in the coming years due to keen interest shown by investors and engineers towards the sector. Further, various steps taken in the direction of eco-friendliness and energy independence helped in building the momentum within the CSP markets in the year 2006, which finally reached it peak in the year 2007-2008 when the prices of silicon-based photovoltaic (PV) modules saw a high rise due to a temporary shortage of solar grade silicon in the market, suggests the report.

Further, it emphasizes that even the global economic crisis of the year 2008 couldn’t initially affect the CSP sector to a great extent as a big number of projects were already in the pipeline; although the market saw a fall when government incentives were reduced.

Titled “Concentrated Solar Power,” the new study report launched by Pike Research (News - Alert) offers a deep analysis of technology issues and policy trends that are boosting the growth of CSP adoption in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, India and China; and suggests that by the year 2020, the total installed capacity of CSP will increase significantly from 1.7 GW in 2012 to 35.0 GW by 2020.

“The biggest threat to resumed growth in CSP is the dropping price of PV modules,” commented Peter Asmus, senior analyst at Pike Research. “PV modules continue to drop beyond 50 percent of their peak in mid-2008. In addition, the established track record of PV is more attractive to financial backers. Yet, CSP may overcome competition from PV by reducing costs as the result of bigger scale and two technology propositions that increase operating revenue and profits: hybridization with fossil fuel plants through a process called Integrated Solar Combined Cycle or ‘ISCC’ and utility-sized energy storage capabilities.”

Earlier this month, Pike Research released a report titled “Submarine Electricity Transmission” that examines the market opportunity and demand for submarine power cable projects around the world and also analyzes the continuing expansion of such projects. The report, while acknowledging the fact that the high-voltage submarine cable sector was a niche market, stated that submarine power transmission cables were being used by grid operators to supplement or replace aging and inadequate grid infrastructures.