ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the social sustainability of CSP by examining its relationship to existing social inequities in the region where CSP plants are under construction, investigating public participation in the siting process, and recognizing connections between CSP and scarce water resources. The construction of large-scale renewable energy infrastructure has obvious environmental benefits of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other forms of pollution. However, poorly planned clean energy development risks perpetuating the inequities of the existing electrical power system, as well as producing new configurations of winners and losers. CSP, if well planned, can provide vast improvements over dam building, but problems need to be solved in terms of conservation of scarce water resources and lack of procedural justice in siting. This chapter concludes by comparing the benefits and drawbacks of CSP to those of local development projects initiated by NGOs, arguing that both are needed simultaneously to achieve socially sustainable development. The best practices for siting CSP plants should be paired with local development to meet immediate citizen-defined needs. Long-term efforts must be made to address local-scale inequities in order for local citizens to benefit from the development of CSP and electricity exports from CSP.
