Fractal steel texturing could solve the corrosive effect of higher temperature solar salts in tomorrow's Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) We recently caught up with Dr. Ranga Pitchumani, who was the Chief Scientist for the SunShot Initiative, Founding Director of its...
CSP News & Analysis
Thermochemical energy storage to deliver Gen3 solar 365 days/yr
Solar even under grey skies 365 days a year: Typically, simplicity equals low costs. But the creators of a multi-technology thermochemical energy storage system for Gen3 concentrating solar power (CSP) claim that their complex design would bring costs down by enabling...
Heat-recovery for a solar reactor is tested at ETH Zürich
Heat-recovery ideas for solar reactors existed as theories “but not to actually go to the lab, build a device and try to make it work.”
Oxygen fix for high-temperature molten-salt degradation (and corrosion) at 620°C
The molten salt mixture deployed in today’s commercial CSP plants for thermal energy storage is liquid at 565°C and degrades at higher temperatures. Yet higher temperatures would increase thermal efficiency. So how can we develop a molten salt mix that can reach...
Cascaded thermocline storage with metal wool gets test: HYBRIDplus
Three years ago, Abengoa thermal energy storage engineer Cristina Prieto exchanged the relatively secretive world of commercial CSP for academia. Now, as the professor for a newly created thermal energy storage discipline at the School of Engineering at the University...
Vast Solar’s fix for tank leaks that stymied the first Tower CSP
Tower CSP thermal storage initially had a tank leak problem. Vast Solar says they have the solution
Add nickel to ceria for solar syngas at just 700°C
Adding nickel to ceria can yield solar syngas at lower temperatures - at just 700°C Solar thermochemistry researchers at the University of Florida and Synhelion tried a new way to generate syngas, the precursor to hydrocarbon fuels like jet fuel or diesel. Solar...
Water-cooled window for hot solar receivers over 1500°C
Goal: ensure the quartz window never exceeds 300°C, despite solar receiver temperatures above 1500°C – keeping thermal efficiency over 50%
Successful PROMES-CNRS thermocline test of latent/sensible heat storage
A solar thermal energy storage breakthrough – single tank thermal energy storage avoiding thermocline thickening has been tested successfully
Are there still careers in solar energy innovation?
Tower CSP needs talented engineers in optics, robotics and AI to advance heliostat technology and cut costs.
Fraunhofer finds hybrid PV-CSP in Chile beats gas LCOE
Hybrid PV-CSP in Chile A new study from energy engineering consultancy Fraunhofer - for Chile compares the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) of hybrid solar with gas. Comparison between Concentrated Solar Power and Gas-Based Generation in Terms of Economic and...
Solar energy record: Mongolian CSP generated round the clock
Solar energy record - 12 days, 24 hours a day In a solar energy record for round-the-clock power generation, Mongolia's Wulate 100MW trough CSP project ran continuously for 12 days, generating pure solar energy without batteries; due to the thermal energy storage in...
SolarSteam wins recognition for Canadian climate tech
SolarSteam was recently picked by Foresight Canada as one of the country’s most investable clean tech companies. The start-up uses concentrating solar thermal to produce hot water and steam for use by industrial and institutional clients that need to meet an initial...
Consortium to demonstrate nitrogen for fertilizer from biosolids using solar thermal
Next year Solar Dynamics will demo a pilot project with solar thermal energy to dry biosolids to extract nitrogen to make fertilizer pellets
Innovation in its volumetric absorber takes OVR efficiency to 90%
With innovation in its core component – the volumetric absorber – the Open Volumetric Receiver (OVR) can reach 90% efficiency and beyond
Sodium heat transfer to Magnesia gets storage test
Liquid sodium heat transfer with magnesia thermal storage is ideally suited to high-temperature energy needs in industrial processes
Denmark’s solar district heat leadership due to great policies
In Denmark, financing green district heat was not left to the whims of the market.
DLR finds CST is the Goldilocks renewable to decarbonize German industry
An assessment of the cost/benefit of each green heat technology is timely, as countries that were most heavily dependent on Russian gas must rapidly decarbonize heavy industry as gas supplies dwindle from over 40% to under 10% and rise in price from 20 to 140 euros...
China’s 2050 power could be Zero Carbon for under 1% of GDP: study
The average annual additional costs are ~0.62% of China’s GDP in 2020.
At SolarPACES 2022, Heliogen talks up solar heat efficiency for mines
“Our heliostat software works like human bodies work. We have eyes and eyes allow us to put our fingers in a very exact place with feedback.”
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