Sun gonna rise in the West.

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Leading French & German nuclear engineering companies going solar? What's with that?

Solar-thermal power to grow 30 times in only 10 years. And that doesn't even include solar PV or wind power.

Areva SA of France predicts the global use of solar-thermal power will grow by about 30-fold this decade, a forecast that spurred the world’s largest maker of nuclear reactors to buy a California-based equipment maker. Areva wants to use Ausra’s solar-thermal equipment to build projects for independent power producers, utilities and industrial customers. The company will target markets including southwestern U.S., Europe and the Middle East.

Europe's largest engineering company is already onboard.

Siemens AG, Europe’s largest engineering company, agreed last year to a $418 million purchase of Beit Shemesh, Israel-based Solel Solar Ltd.

And Spain is already building 13 solar-thermal plants.

Abengoa SA, also an engineering company, is building 13 solar-thermal plants in Spain that will benefit from consumer subsidies for clean energy.

And the DOE wants to run solar thermal as baseload. Now we're talking.

The U.S. Department of Energy is ramping up research into what´s also called “concentrated solar power,” funding almost 30 projects and working with companies including New York-based Alcoa Inc. and Spain’s Abengoa [now Siemens CSP] with the aim of making the technology competitive in the baseload power market by 2020.

With 34,000 MW (equivalent to 34 nuclear plants) of solar power in only 10 years.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance has forecast the installed base to grow to as much as 34,000 megawatts worldwide by 2020.

China move over, sun gonna rise in the West.

Areva Says Solar Thermal Market May Increase 30-Fold by 2020
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