Source: South Africa ITWeb Spanish-based technology and engineering company, Sener, together with its partners, has invested billions of rands in the Ilanga concentrated solar power 1 (CSP1) project,which provides solar-generated thermal electricity to around 100 000 South African households. Billed SA’s first 100% black-owned solar plant, the Ilanga CSP1 is located in Karoshoek, about 20km […]
Testing laboratories in Germany, France and Spain have confirmed the effectiveness of a new high-performance (97% absorbance) optical coating developed by Brightsource Energy, that can be “solar-cured” directly atop the receiver of tower CSP, like Brightsource is building as part of the ACWA Power 700 MW DEWA CSP project in the UAE for the Dubai […]
The innovative pentagonal Stellio heliostat has gone from lab to commercial deployment in China’s Hami CSP project in record time
Unlike in other countries, Chile’s open auctions have no subsidies or technology restrictions, pitting CSP against combined cycle gas turbine power plants
Building on R&D from IDEALAB, Bill Gates has now invested in his second CSP-based start-up after Malta, with Heliogen. Press Release; Singular scientific achievement takes place at Heliogen’s commercial facility in Lancaster, California PASADENA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Heliogen, the clean energy company that is transforming sunlight to create and replace fuels, today announced its launch and that […]
Surplus solar or wind to heat thermal storage would be a win-win, meeting changing market needs to store renewables – while transitioning fossil energy
The goal of this RFI is to assess how we can accelerate the commercialization of sCO2 integration with CSP. Today, the Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) has issued a new request for information (RFI) about the integration of advanced supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) power cycles and thermal energy storage with concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP). This is […]
On November 6, 2019, the U.S. Department of Energy announced $128 million in funding for 75 projects in this program. Thirteen of these projects will focus on CSP research and development. Concentrating Solar Power Research and Development: $30 million for 13 research projects that enable CSP to provide power at any time and in any season, and […]
Source: Port Technology News The Port of Antwerp has inaugurated the first Concentrated Solar Thermal (CST) in Europe as part of its efforts to make its operations more environmentally friendly. [Actually, there are many such projects in Europe: for example the many cities with solar district heat from Aalborg. CST (or CSH) provides just direct […]
This week, the Cerro Dominador Group/EIG Global Energy Partners bought the Likana Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) project from US-based SolarReserve, which was unable to complete the project. SolarReserve had already developed Likana by accomplishing the preliminary work of siting and monitoring local DNI and taking it through Chile’s environmental permitting process, but was unable to […]
At the 2019 SolarPACES Conference, Vast Solar took the SolarPACES Technical Innovation Award for their use of high temperature sodium-based HTF in tower CSP, presented in their paper: Vast Solar: improving performance and reducing cost and risk using high temperature modular arrays and sodium heat transfer fluid. Their design appears like a small modular tower […]
For countries such as Japan or South Korea with poor DNI and little space for wind and solar, the value of hydrogen is that it can be made overseas with renewable energy, then stored and shipped, and used to produce electricity, heat, or propulsion. This way, regardless of local solar or wind resource, any economy […]
Luneng’s 50 Megawatt (MW) tower CSP project with 12 hours of thermal energy storage (in molten salts) connected to the Chinese grid on September 20th
Citing IRENA, World Bank energy consultant Elena Cuadros said Concentrated Solar could replace fossil fuels for half the world’s industrial heat needs
Which Middle East and North Africa (MENA) nations could decarbonize industrial heat with Concentrated Solar Heat (CSH) most cost-effectively? World Bank energy consultant Elena Cuadros and Fraunhofer’s Pedro Horta supplied very detailed calculations showing where CSH could be substituted at a lower cost than fossil fuels by comparing CSH costs to specific fossil fuel costs currently […]
Supcon has completed its second CSP Tower project, the 50 MW Gonghe project at record speed – just under a year and a half
Cutting risk in financing will be the next key to further cut CSP costs, according to the author of Non-recourse project financing for concentrated solar thermal power published in the journal Utilities Policy. Dr. Steven Geroe teaches Energy and Environmental Law and Contract Law at Melbourne’s La Trobe Law School, and became interested in China’s […]
Researchers propose combining a solar receiver with energy storage within one unit on the ground, by using a beam-down optical reflecting system
Iron, nickel, alumina and copper mining processes are among the industrial processes that require heat at between 700°C and 1000°C. The advanced concentrated solar thermal (CST) reactors being developed by researchers globally can attain temperatures this high (and higher, up to 1500°C). But CEOs in mining and mineral processing industries are more familiar with fuel […]
SolarPACES 2018 Proceedings Now Published with AIP The SolarPACES 2018 conference proceedings are now published with AIP, the American Institute of Physics (www.aip.org), volume number 2126. All accepted papers are freely accessible on the AIP website and contain an ISBN number for the volume as well as individual DOI numbers for each paper. The proceedings […]
China has an ambitious proposal for a global HVDC grid to transfer renewable energy throughout the world. Interconnected regional electricity networks would be connected to a backbone of HVDC lines that would become a globe-spanning super grid by 2050. Advancing the idea is China’s Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization (GEIDO). The concept depends on […]
A preliminary study of the average cost of a novel process for producing solar hydrogen in several locations in Australia finds it could come close to the US DOE renewable hydrogen target of $3 per kilogram. The way that hydrogen is reformed from natural gas is a well-established, low-cost process. But greenhouse gases are emitted […]
Charcoal might seem like a very low tech product, but lithium batteries, water filtration and super-capacitors are among its high tech end uses, and the requirements for these different purposes are actually very exacting. Solar researchers in Mexico are investigating the various temperatures and the rate of heat needed to make different biochars from agricultural […]
“Our “back of the envelop” communication with researchers is that $3 per gallon of gasoline equivalent (GGE) per kilogram of hydrogen could be obtainable,” said Al Maaitah.
The 150 MW Noor III CSP tower in Morocco has exceeded performance targets on output and storage integration in the first few months of operation and financing costs for tower storage projects should fall in line with parabolic trough rates going forward, Xavier Lara, Senior Consultant at CSP engineering group Empresarios Agrupados (EA), told New […]
Morocco’s 800 MW CSP-PV Noor Midelt breaks last year’s auction price record of 7.3 cents set by DEWA in the UAE, with winning bid at USD 7 cents/kWh The Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (MASEN) has announced that the consortium of EDF Renewables, Masdar, and Green of Africa – a joint venture between three Moroccan […]
Standalone thermal storage: “Incredibly cheap grid-scale storage with a very long calendar life” The new Venture Capital (VC) firm Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) only invests in technologies they vet as both “scientifically feasible at scale” and with the potential to reduce “at least half a gigaton of greenhouse gases every year.” Along with Alfa Laval […]
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EPC Contract with Shanghai Electric to Develop 700 MW DEWA CSP Project Signed in China ACWA Power Apr 15, 2018 DEWA and ACWA Power, in collaboration with Shanghai Electric, will undertake the 700 MW CSP portion of the 950 MW solar project in Dubai. Together with 250 MW of PV, the 950 MW solar project […]
Retiring coal power plants could see a new life serving the green economy by storing renewable energy as thermal batteries, delivering the stored energy back to the grid using the former coal plant’s existing power blocks and grid connections. Leveraging the low cost of the molten salt thermal energy storage used in CSP (Concentrated Solar Power) […]
A study commissioned by the Chilean government and presented before the SolarPACES Conference in Morocco makes data available to potential participants in a Chilean CSP industry. The study, Local Content in CSP:CST Projects- Assessment of the Chilean Industry is designed to put together useful information for both international CSP developers bidding in auctions and local […]
CSP Researchers: Up to $33M is available under the US Department of Energy SETO office to support the development of low-cost storage technologies for CSP that make solar-thermal energy available on demand. In addition, the office is seeking projects that lower CSP costs by supporting the development of advanced manufacturing processes and developing autonomous technologies. […]
China could be the first to deploy s-CO2 in CSP The world’s initial Concentrated SolarPower (CSP) plants continue to use the legacy steam cycles of conventional thermal plants. But steam cycle is a mature technology with temperature-based efficiency limits, hampering the potential to raise efficiency and lower costs. Consequently, international researchers have investigated a new […]
Algae is a potential energy feedstock that is synergistic with solar fuels because algae can be grown in salt water on cheap desert land with a good solar resource, and it also contains the chemicals needed for making solar fuels (hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen). Research is ongoing into reducing the cost of farming algae. To […]
The tower form of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) is very young technology. Less than a gigawatt is deployed globally, making it a nascent technology at the “Cambrian explosion” stage; multiple innovations are still being explored to cut costs. (How tower CSP works) A new economic study looks at reducing its Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) […]
Thermal energy stored in steel slag could replace fossil fuels used for heat in steel production
With China in the game, the outlook for the technology has gone from from gloomy to better than ever – however it also carries great risk
Renewable energy researchers have been looking into how to cut CO2 emissions from processing industrial minerals like cement and lime, as these are responsible for a high share of the global greenhouse gas emissions. For every 10 tons of cement we produce, we release 9 tons of CO2, with much of that through the burning […]
Ilanga-1 has been certified to initiate commercial operation of its day-into-night solar CSP facility, now that construction, commissioning and testing is complete Press Release: Johannesburg (South Africa), 5 December 2018 – SENER, global engineering and technology group, together with its engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) partners, Emvelo and Cobra, announces that the Ilanga-1 Concentrated Solar […]
. Prof. Manuel Blanco, European Research Area (ERA) Chair in Solar Thermal Technologies for the Eastern Mediterranean of the Energy Division of the Cyprus Institute’s Energy, Environment and Water Research Center (EEWRC) & Vice-Chair of SolarPACES announces the first-ever international conference on the role of CSP in climate mitigation through decarbonising the energy sector, to be […]
Instead of running air conditioners on fossil-fueled electricity, University of Bergamo researchers Guiseppe Franchini and Antonio Perdichizzi propose an alternative cooling technology; using a thermal form of solar energy to provide solar district cooling in the Saudi Kingdom. Their study of the economics of solar district cooling was published at Energy Conversion and Management, in […]
California is a global leader in climate policy, and its goal of 100% clean energy by 2045 is now law in the 5th largest economy after China, the US, Japan and Germany. While the state has had a cap and trade program in place since 2013, it has been the simplicity and directness of a […]
The SolarPACES 2017 conference proceedings are now published with AIP, the American Institute of Physics (www.aip.org), volume number 2033. All accepted papers are freely accessible on the AIP website and contain an ISBN number for the volume as well as individual DOI numbers for each paper. The SolarPACES 2017 proceedings are available here The conference […]
GlassPoint just signed an agreement with a second oil company operating in Oman to facilitate oil production by the use of 2 GWth solar-generated steam replacing fossil fuel-generated steam.
A New Paper Describes a Solar Thermal Air Capture of Carbon Dioxide with Amino Acids Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) will play a key role in a decarbonized economy because it can produce heat without adding any carbon emissions. Though for centuries we’ve produced heat for industrial uses by burning a fossil fuel like coal, or […]
Source: IEA: Renewables 2018 Market analysis and forecast from 2018 to 2023 With 1.9 GW coming online, China is expected to overtake the United States to have the second-largest CSP (Concentrated Solar Power) installed capacity by 2023, as global deployment nearly doubles over the next five years from today’s 5 GW. CSP is expected to grow […]
At the 95th Meeting of the SolarPACES Executive Committee, which was held in Casablanca in October, the committee decided on a new logo to represent what solar thermal energy has to offer in today’s world. SolarPACES new logo has been designed to differentiate the thermal (heat) aspect of solar thermal energy from solar Photovoltaic (PV). […]
Source: China National Solar Thermal Energy Alliance The Delingha 50MW solar thermal power plant constructed by CGN New Energy, a subsidiary of China General Nuclear Power Corporation, in the northwestern province of Qinghai was put into operation on October 10th, 2018. As China’s first large commercial parabolic-trough concentrated solar power (CSP) plant, the operation of […]
SENER is about to start the final tests at Noor Ouarzazate III, after completing the first synchronization of the 150 MW Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plant to the Moroccan grid. With these milestones, SENER starts the last phase before the plant’s commercial operation and final delivery to the client. This plant is the second unit designed and built […]
An interview reveals Morocco’s secret: MASEN (the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy) is actually a renewable energy “one stop shop” – starting with climate policy, through needs assessment, planning, infrastructure development and finally structuring to mobilize project finance.
Source: ARPA-E The U.S. Department of Energy has announced the selection of 10 projects as part of a new Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) program, DAYS; Duration Addition to electricitY Storage. Awardees will develop energy storage systems to provide reliable, affordable power to the electric grid for up to 100 hours, enhancing grid resilience and […]
US solar developer SolarReserve has just signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Australian firm Heliostat SA, to partner in manufacturing and assembling heliostats and heliostat components for the 150 MW Aurora CSP project that SolarReserve is developing in Port Augusta. Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) is a thermal form of solar energy that includes integrated molten […]
The time is right to consider what went wrong and what went right with Spain’s previous CSP policy – because an election in June put the renewable-friendly coalition that developed it back in power. Spain’s socialist-led coalition government jumpstarted virtually all the Concentrated Solar Power/CSP deployed in Europe, 2.3 GW, creating a supply chain of Spanish […]
Source: Center for Mediterranean Integration Lessons learned in Chile’s CSP program: A Word with Carlos Arenas Coronil, former Regional Secretary, Northern Chile Region CM. You have pushed for the development of concentrating solar power in Chile from the very beginning, why do you think CSP is a good choice for Chile? CA. I’ll give you […]
Could a Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) power plant tap the waste heat it produces to desalinate water? Scientists at find that the answer is yes – in a co-generation setup where CSP using a supercritical carbon dioxide (s-CO2) power cycle is combined with thermal desalination – and they go on to figure out the process that […]
Source: SENER Johannesburg (South Africa), 02 August 2018 – The engineering and technology group SENER and ACCIONA Industrial have achieved another relevant milestone initiating the salt melting process at the Kathu Solar Park Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plant. The molten salt will be used to store heat from the solar field that can later be […]
The DOE announced $72 million in funding of three novel pathways to raising temperature and efficiency to lower costs for three CSP tower technologies
Solar thermal energy turns out to be the key to China meeting its climate commitments. A new study investigates the best combination of renewables for providing the lowest cost to power system operators in two of China’s provinces best suited to scale up renewable energy. China’s power systems operators must invest in renewable energy to […]
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The first-ever 35-year solar power contract – ACWA Power’s with DEWA in Dubai – had a record-low price, for CSP+storage of just 7.3 cents per kWh. Did a longer contract enable the record low price?
Researchers have developed a prototype for calibrating an entire solar field in a single night, shaving months off the current calibration system for large size Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) tower plants. In tower CSP, an encircling solar field of thousands of heliostats (specialized mirrors) must continuously and precisely reflect concentrated beams from always-moving sunlight onto […]
From CSPPlaza: China’s power grid system has connected a new solar thermal power project. On the evening of 30th June, China’s first commercial-scale Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) project, China Guangdong Nuclear Power Delingha 50MW parabolic trough CSP station was successfully connected to the grid, achieving the milestone of grid connection. This means that the first […]
Freshwater shortages are projected to increase in our hotter and more crowded future. Already,150 countries desalinate seawater, using fossil fuels. But supplying an ever-increasing basic need with non-renewable fuels creates a growing threat, according to Dr. Diego-César Alarcón-Padilla, who heads the Solar Desalination Unit at Plataforma Solar de Almería (PSA) and is Operating Agent of Task […]
All concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies use a mirror configuration to concentrate the sun’s light energy onto a receiver and convert it into heat. The heat can then be used to create steam to drive a turbine to produce electrical power or used as industrial process heat. Concentrating solar power plants can integrate thermal energy […]
Source: RenewEconomy The world’s biggest solar tower power plant with molten salt storage has begun commissioning in Morocco, and is scheduled to begin production by October. The 150MW Noor Ouarzazate III solar receiver, with 7.5 hours of molten salt storage is only the second big scale project of its type, and trumps its predecessor in […]
China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) has announced that the deadline for the first batch of CSP demo projects can be extended to 2020, but with an electricity price reduction mechanism. On May 22, the NEA issued a notice, “Promoting the Construction of Solar Thermal Power Demonstration Projects”. The notice pointed out that the first batch […]
Source: Cerro Dominador May 18, 2018, Chile – Cerro Dominador, a Chilean company owned by investment funds managed by EIG Global Energy Partners (“EIG”), today announced the signing of the financing for its Solar Power Concentration (CSP) plant located in the Atacama desert, in Chile. This milestone will allow the company to complete the construction of […]
Source: CSPToday Design innovations and a favorable development framework should see Morocco hit its lowest prices for the hybrid PV-CSP Noor Midelt project and the country is joining global support schemes to diversify its funding supply, an official at the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (Masen), said. Managed by Masen, the renewable program supported the […]
A new paper published at Solar Energy investigates Eastern Morocco’s suitability to host Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) in a multilayered assessment. Dr. Ahmed Alami Merrouni, who heads up research on Meteorology and Solar Materials Degradation at Institut de Recherche en Energie Solaire et Energies Nouvelles (IRESEN), and his team determined which parts of Eastern Morocco […]
Source: RenewEconomy.com US solar company SolarReserve has sought approval to add a 70MW solar PV farm to the world leading solar tower and molten salt storage facility proposed for Port Augusta in South Australia. The plans for the additional solar PV are revealed in a development application to the South Australia Planning Commission, submitted in […]
Source: heliocsp.com Abengoa will provide the technology and develop the engineering to the LuNeng Haixi 50 MW solar thermal tower plant project, in the Qinghai province. The company will also be responsible for providing the technology and engineering for the Royal Tech Yumen project for a 50 MW solar thermal parabolic trough plant to be […]
A new paper, presented at the SolarPACES Annual Conference proposes using ceria particles not only as the redox reactant in hydrogen production, but for also for heat transfer and storage.
International Conference presented innovative solutions in mirror cleaning, cooling systems, simulations Source: https://cordis.europa.eu/news/rcn/129321_en.html Concentrated solar power (CSP) is a promising electricity generation technology full of growing potential. However, traditional wet-cooled CSP plants often consume a large amount of water which especially causes a challenge in arid areas where water resources are scarce. The International Conference on […]
Carbon dioxide (CO2) Global energy-related CO2 emissions grew by 1.4% in 2017, reaching a historic high of 32.5 gigatonnes (Gt), a resumption of growth after three years of global emissions remaining flat. The increase in CO2 emissions, however, was not universal. While most major economies saw a rise, some others experienced declines, including the United […]
In the future we can mix solar heat + CO2 + H2O to make a carbon neutral kerosene (aircraft jet fuel) that will make flying climate friendly. Making thermochemical solar fuel is renewable, because sunlight, carbon dioxide and water is essentially unlimited. So solar from deserts could fuel aircraft flights for centuries while not adding […]
Agreements opening the way for the construction of 27 renewable-energy independent power producer (IPP) projects, with a combined investment value of R56-billion and a combined capacity of 2 300 MW, were finally signed on Wednesday April 4, after a confidence-sapping delay of over two years.
Industry response suggests an Australian concentrated solar thermal market would be well subscribed A report out from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) this month published responses from industry stakeholders on the viability of a concentrated solar thermal (CST) energy market in Australia: Paving the way for concentrated solar thermal in Australia. Only 5 gigawatts […]
Source: EurekAlert! The thousands of metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted from power plants each year doesn’t have to go into the atmosphere. Researchers are optimistic that within the next decade we will be able to affordably capture CO2 waste and convert it into useful molecules for feedstock, biofuels, pharmaceuticals, or renewable fuels. On […]
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), signed into law by US Democrats in response to the international financial meltdown of 2008, offered the biggest boost for renewables since President Carter first funded solar research in the ’70s. Today, in a repudiation of funding slashes sought by both the majority Republican Party and his own administration, […]
From CSPToday: Libya’s Misurata Free Zone (MFZ) has signed a memorandum of understanding with consultancy iQ Power to develop integrated CSP and PV projects with up to 300 MW total capacity. MFZ, the first free trade zone established on Libyan territory, has shown its desire to develop a solar energy industry, according to a iQ […]
Via RenewEconomy: Oz Minerals signed a landmark deal with US-based SolarReserve, the developer of the 150MW solar tower and molten salt storage projects near Port Augusta, to share part of the cost of a new 270km high voltage transmission line. It is believed to be the first deal of its type where costs are […]
A lot is riding on Morocco’s Noor III Tower solar with molten salts storage is a very young technology. Only one such power plant is operating globally at over 100 MW, utility-scale. The 2nd is now about to start. At 150 MW, Noor III will be only the second-ever utility-scale (over 100 MW) CSP tower in the world […]
From HelioCSP: According to Solargis, China has good potential to develop CSP industry in terms of solar resources, but with strong geographic diversification. Abundant direct normal irradiance is found in the Western regions of Inner Mongolia, Tibet, Qinghai, Xinjiang and Gansu. Average annual DNI in these regions varies between 1700 and 2300 kWh/m2. For reliable […]
Noor III, at 150 MW, the world’s second utility-scale Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) tower with molten salt storage, will deliver power to Morocco’s electricity grid by October, if not sooner. “Noor III receiver installation on tower has been finalized already, so we are ready to continue the commissioning of the plant with the solar field […]
Acciona has reached an agreement to sell its five solar thermal plants in Spain (with a combined capacity of 250MW) to ContourGlobal plc. The transaction amounts to €1.09 billion, which could increase by €27 million, to €1.12 billion, if certain milestones are met. Once completed, the deal will enable the Acciona group to reduce debt […]
The engineering and technology group SENER and Acciona achieved the connection of the 100-MW concentrated solar power (CSP) plant to the 132 kV ESKOM Distribution line on February 23, 2018. Main and auxiliary transformers have been energized which represents a relevant milestone for power plant commissioning activities. The Kathu Solar Park CSP Plant, which will supply […]
The 1,021 MWth solar thermal EOR project will generate 6,000 tons of solar steam each day, one gigawatt of solar thermal energy From Glasspoint: Fremont, California, February 12th, 2018 – Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), the leading exploration and production company in the Sultanate of Oman, and GlassPoint Solar, the leading supplier of solar energy to the […]
International solar thermal energy researchers have successfully tested CONTISOL, a solar reactor that runs on air, able to make any solar fuel like hydrogen and to run day or night – because it uses concentrated solar power (CSP) and includes thermal energy storage. The promise of solar fuels is that we could have zero carbon […]
From Reuters: BEIJING, Jan 25 (Reuters) – China’s SPIC Shijiazhuang Dongfang Energy said on Thursday it plans to build a high-tech solar power plant in Inner Mongolia with capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW), which would be one of the largest of its kind in the world’s top solar market. The project would cost about 46 […]
Report from CSPPLAZA: In 2017, global installed capacity of CSP totals 5133MW, representing an increase of 2.3% over 2016, according to statistics from CSPPLAZA research center. On the basis of 5017MW of 2016, the CSP installed capacity in 2017 showed only a slight increase for the reason that several projects haven’t put into operation, […]
Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) is suited to regions with good solar resource. CSP+desalination can simultaneously solve related water scarcity. Seawater desalination can be integrated into a solar thermal energy plant using a variety of desalination technologies. Is solar-driven multi-effect distillation a financially feasible solution for water-stressed Namibia? A research study from Stellenbosch University finds that a […]
Gulf Base reports: Saudi Arabia-based ACWA Power, the power and desalination plant producer, could go public within the next two years, according to its CEO and President Paddy Padmanathan. ACWA, which has garnered a reputation for building renewable energy projects at record low prices, is looking for an initial public offering (IPO) as soon as […]
The moment the market received a signal that a large number of gigawatts would be tendered, “costs came crashing down. That is what CSP arguably needs, and I think we’re not that far from that point.” CSP Today reports: The tender process favored by the likes of Chile and Dubai has done more than anything […]
Renewable energy costs for the four main clean energy technologies is covered in an exhaustive new report from IRENA: Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2017. The cost trajectories for Concentrated Solar Power (CSP), solar PV, onshore and offshore wind can be found in the full report which notes: “The sharp cost reductions for CSP, solar PV, onshore and […]
A new solar technology is twice as efficient, cutting the cost of solar thermal energy, by raising operating temperatures to 1,000°C, almost twice the 565°C molten salt temperature in current concentrated solar power (CSP) tower plants. For most innovative research in clean energy, the dreaded “Valley of Death” after lab scale success is the sad […]
SEPCOIII Electric Power Construction Corporation, one of two EPCs involved in construction, (SENER, the EPS for Gemasolar is the other one) said that project synchronization to the grid of the first 10 MW of ACWA Power’s Noor II solar plant was accomplished successfully on January 10, 2018 at 16:52. Unit operating indicators were normal, marking […]
Morocco’s first operating CSP plant has shown that concentrating solar power can solve the problem of energy blackouts in the peak evening hours, a senior representative of the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (MASEN) told the recent CSP Seville conference. The 160 MW Noor 1 parabolic trough power plant exceeded its objectives in year one […]
ADELAIDE, Australia–(BUSINESS WIRE)–SolarReserve has received Development Approval for its Aurora Solar Energy Project, a key milestone required to build the landmark 150 megawatt solar thermal power station 30 kilometers north of Port Augusta. The approval process examined a range of critical elements including environmental, community, and social impacts of the Aurora project, which were assessed by […]
Renewable Hydrogen For Export Funding Round Deadline for submissions is February 28, 2018 Following a positive response to our recent Exporting Renewable Hydrogen RFI, we are opening an R&D funding round from 20 December 2017 to 5pm AEDT 28 February 2018. ARENA will be inviting a broad range of R&D applications, from early stage R&D […]
Ammonia (NH3) is key to enabling the solar hydrogen (H2) future, says a prominent Australian researcher. Solar fuel could be stored, bottled and shipped globally in ammonia
According to Power Technology, TuNur applied to the Tunisian Government to begin construction of their proposed 4.5GW concentrated solar power (CSP) project in the Sahara Desert at a price for power that is expected to be 8.73 cents per kilowatt hour, much lower than suggested three months ago. [Ed note: when SolarPACES interviewed TuNur CEO […]
Sign up for the Webinar from ATA: Morocco’s solar energy opportunities 22 Jan, 12:00 CET (Check your local time) Morocco is arguably the North African country that has made the most effort towards creating a national solar energy industry. Morocco has no fossil fuel reserves, so it is almost entirely reliant on imports. To mitigate this, […]
Thermochemical solar leverages heat from concentrated solar power (CSP) for chemical reactions. Research into thermochemical solar reactors to split water to hydrogen is a priority in top national laboratories internationally. (See SolarPACES Research Task II: Solar Chemistry Research). What part will thermal solar play in a future hydrogen economy? For an overview, we checked with a […]
A new study from UC Davis; Land-Sparing Opportunities for Solar Energy Development in Agricultural Landscapes: A Case Study of the Great Central Valley, CA, United States calculates the potential energy generation from Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) and photovoltaics (PV) in terawatt hours (TWh) annually in California, by looking only at unwanted land within the Central […]
Source: CSP Focus: Abengoa has developed three solar thermal power plants for electricity generation in the north of the country. Xina Solar One -the last to be constructed- achieved practical completion back in August 2017, and has successfully completed its first three months of operation. XiNa Solar One, the solar thermal parabolic trough plant that Abengoa has […]
ACWA Power South Africa Deputy Managing Director Nandu Bhula said that he had been personally assured at the Energy Indaba last week that all 27 contracts would be signed “in the next week”
Mintek pyrometallurgy engineer Lina Hockaday is trying a highly focused solar reactor to replace the fossil energy used as part of the steelmaking process
HeatVentors from Hungary is the winner of this year’s edition of international PowerUp! competition for innovative energy start-ups. Rita Farkas and Zoltán Andrássy presented a solution which offers an innovative thermal energy storage with phase change materials which can save 90% space and 20-40% energy with 0,5-2 years return on investment. The technology has a […]
For Immediate Release: December 2017, Johannesburg, South Africa: South Africa’s Bokpoort CSP celebrates another Production Milestone as the Global Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Drive Intensifies. The CEO for Bokpoort CSP, Mr Ryno Lacock was proud to announce that on the 27th November 2017, the plant clocked production of 1009.31 MWh in a single day. This […]
On 28 November 2017, the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR), together with international project partners, presented what is currently the largest solar-chemical installation for the production of hydrogen. In the HYDROSOL_Plant project, scientists and companies have jointly further developed the process of direct hydrogen production using solar radiation. By redeveloping both the […]
Long-distance, high-voltage transmission projects have been stymied, but a new transmission strategy would use existing right of ways along railroad tracks.
No respondents in a Gulf Intelligence Survey believe that EOR will continue to use fossil energy, and a total of 83% of Gulf region envision solar thermal steam like Glasspoint Solar’s Oman PDO Miraah and Bakersfield, California Aera solar EOR projects will be the norm for EOR within just three years The deployment of renewable […]
In October 2017, SolarReserve was first to bid CSP with storage at somewhere “under 5 cents” per kWh in Chile, according to CEO Kevin Smith From New Energy Update: The levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of Middle East CSP projects could fall below $50/MWh next year, two of the industry’s leading consultants predicted at CSP […]
Over a period of 3-years, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy has been doing R&D-activities on converting energy to heat in rock fill at a testing-unit in Hamburg. Now the company converts its findings into a real scale project. Starting in December, Siemens Gamesa will install the first full scale “Future Energy System – FES” on the […]
As prices for Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) with thermal energy storage dropped an astonishing 50% between May and November this year, it seemed that 2017 saw the kind of price breakthrough that could allow CSP to compete with traditional thermal power in supplying dispatchable electricity. CSP is the heat-based form of solar, which generates power […]
United States Department of Energy Funding Opprtunity You have until Monday, December 4 to submit a concept paper for the Solar Desalination funding opportunity. Solar Desalination aims to develop novel technologies or concepts using solar thermal energy to assist in creating freshwater from otherwise unusable waters. Thermal desalination is a potential solution to increase water supplies for municipal […]
GlassPoint will build an 850 MW (thermal) solar thermal facility in Bakersfield, generating 12 million barrels of emissions-free steam annually for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) replacing natural gas.
In August 2016, SUPCON inaugurated China’s first molten salt tower CSP plant at 10 MW. The 50 MW Qinghai Gonghe CSP plant will be its second Power China’s Qinghai Gonghe 50MW Tower CSP Project, one of China 1st batch 20 pilot CSP projects, is owned and developed by Power Construction Corporation of China (shorted as […]
On Wednesday, Abengoa’s KaXu Solar One concentrated solar power (CSP) project, in South Africa’s Northern Cape, was presented with a Momentum of Change award by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The award was presented at 23rd UN Climate Change Conference, under way in Bonn, Germany. KaXu is a 100MW plant constructed on a […]
The Plataforma Solar de Almería (PSA), is the most important research center in the world devoted to solar thermal concentrating technologies, leading international projects and initiatives driven and supported by the European Union. PSA has an international reputation and is classified as a “unique scientific and technical infrastructure” (ICTS) in Spain and as a “Large Scientific Installation” by the […]
Thermochemical solar fuel manufacturing would be an energy industry with a life of centuries, rather than decades. The feedstock of sunlight, carbon dioxide and water is essentially unlimited. Scientists with the SOLAR-JET Project have demonstrated the first-ever entire process to make kerosene, the jet fuel used by commercial airlines, using a high-temperature thermal solar reactor […]
ACWA Power’s latest record-low contract signed with DEWA at just over 7 cents per kWh is no outlier, according to CEO Paddy Padmanathan. CSP is a thermal form of solar that typically includes thermal storage in a power block so that it can generate power at any time, not just when the sun shines.
Scientists at the Institute for Solar Research tested the particle receiver CentRec for the first time with concentrated solar radiation in the DLR solar thermal power plant in October. In previous tests, the researchers had already irradiated smaller models under laboratory conditions with artificial sunlight. In the Solarturm Jülich, the temperature at the particle outlet of […]
Synlight: Researchers expect that within 10 years, Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) can be used to split water to hydrogen chemically using the world’s desert sun: “Our focus is on the earth’s sun belt, whose rich solar resources are to provide value and prospects to the people living there” Since spring, the sun has been shining […]
WINDHOEK, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) — Namibia has the potential to light up Southern Africa, given its strategic location and ambitious plan for private investments in the power generation sector, according to the Finance Minister Calle Schlettwein. The public sector alone cannot respond to the enormous investment needed to meet the growing demand for electricity in […]
Heat represents three-quarters of industrial energy demand worldwide, and half of it is of low to medium-high temperature The IEA has just released its report IEA INSIGHTS 2017 Renewable Energy for Industry(pdf) Highlights from the IEA report with relevance for CSP: Activity is accelerating with respect to solar heat for industries. While the deployment of […]
If you could capture the sun, this gigantic thermal energy storage tank is what that looks like
Some key points from the IEA’s World Energy Investment 2017: Drop in fossil energy spending reduces market share For the first time ever, the electricity sector edged ahead of the oil and gas sector in 2016 to become the largest recipient of energy investment. However oil and gas still represent two-fifths of global energy […]
Time: 16 Nov, 11:00 CET (Check your local time) ATA Webinar: Solar for commercial and industrial (C&I) heat Sign up to attend Heat and steam generation can be complicated to source for industrial players. In fact, for commercial and industrial (C&I) purposes, the demand for heat is vastly superior to the demand for electricity (74% vs 26% respectively). […]
BY AVI SHULTZ Dr. Avi Shultz is the acting program manager for the United States Department of Energy (DOE) SunShot Initiative Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) team, which supports research, development, and demonstration of solar thermal components and systems that can enable wide-spread deployment of low-cost CSP with thermal energy storage. Every day our power needs […]
MUSCAT, Oman–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) and GlassPoint Solar, the global leader in solar energy for the oil and gas industry, have completed construction on the first block of the Miraah solar plant safely on schedule and on budget, and has successfully delivered steam to the Amal West oilfield. Upon completion, Miraah will be among the world’s […]
The US$880 million Xina concentrated solar power (CSP) plant in Pofadder, South Africa has successfully completed its first month of commercial operation. Mott MacDonald was lenders’ technical advisor during the project’s financing and construction stages and will now monitor operations in an ongoing role. Xina solar plant capacity Awarded during the third round of South Africa’s Renewable […]
Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) prices dropped in 2017, from under 10 cents per kWh in May, to under 5 cents by October. CSP is a form of thermal solar energy that can power day or night, because its intrinsic ability to store its energy thermally enables it to dispatch power at any time.(How CSP Thermal […]
A tender that Chile is carrying out to ensure long-term power supply has attracted 24 proposals from companies that offer up to ten times the amount of energy the country planned to buy. The auction, which aims to guarantee an electricity generation of 2,200 GWh from January 2024, should result in “very competitive prices” for […]
SolarReserve this month issued bids in Chile’s latest auction for 24-hour solar under 5 cents per kWh SolarReserve this month issued bids in Chile’s latest auction for 24-hour solar under 5 cents per kWh, according to CEO Kevin Smith in a release posted on Twitter, Saturday. “Irradiation levels in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile […]
By Jason Deign for Greentechmedia Thermal storage hasn’t garnered the level of industry attention lately as battery storage, which is experiencing quickly falling prices and rising deployments. But thermal storage, and molten salt in particular, actually exceeds the capacity of battery storage in operation so far, according to a new report from the International Renewable Energy Agency. […]
New Energy Update has published a list of all the CSP projects in the pipeline in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The list includes projects that are already under construction, but also ones that are only in development, or merely announced. While some projects announced or in development may not ultimately get […]
An aerospace engineer has built a machine to make water and oxygen from the lunar regolith, powered by solar energy. Thorsten Denk’s paper Design and Test of a Concentrated Solar Powered Fluidized Bed Reactor for Ilmenite Reduction was presented at the 23rd Annual SolarPACES Conference in Chile. (Thorsten Denk – Presentation (pdf) Working over a ten year […]
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories engineers have developed new fractal-like, concentrating solar power receivers for small- to medium-scale use that are up to 20 percent more effective at absorbing sunlight than current technology. The receivers were designed and studied as part of a Laboratory Directed Research and Development project and are also being applied to Sandia’s […]
ECOWAS Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREE ), has began processes to help Ghana exploit the abundant solar thermal energy potential for domestic and industrial use. Ghana’s geographic location around the equatorial sun-belt provides strategic advantage to exploit the abundant solar energy resources to fix its energy needs. The exploitation and installation of […]
Solar can be designed to run only after dark at a competitive price with a current natural gas peaker plant. Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) can be a night-only dispatchable (D-CSP) plant; with its entire solar energy absorbed by day to be delivered after dark to cover the evening peak load on the grid, according to a study funded by the US Department of Energy (DOE).
Senate Bill 338, which mandates that utilities come up with non-gas generation options to meet peak demand, was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown. California has put its utilities on notice: When you’re putting together your next integrated resource plans, you’d better have non-gas generating options for meeting peak demand. That’s what Governor Jerry […]
Australia has some of the highest readings in the world for Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) the solar radiation used in Concentrating Solar Thermal (CST). The Queensland government has received 115 proposals from 79 different firms for its recently launched tender for the “Renewables 400” program. Among them are dispatchable concentrated solar thermal (D-CST) proposals with […]
Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) used in a solar thermal power plant is often portrayed as being in competition with solar PV, but in practice it really competes with the other thermal power plants like natural gas and coal. Here’s why:
Sandia scientists find the optimal way to mop up surplus solar flux on CSP towers Excess solar flux could be harnessed and used to generate additional electricity at a tower CSP plant, by cladding part of the tower containing the receiver with photovoltaic (PV) panels, according to Sandia scientist Cliff Ho. He found that adding […]
Robert Pitz-Paal is elected new SolarPACES Chair Univ.-Prof. Dr-Ing. Robert Pitz-Paal was unanimously appointed as the new Chair of the SolarPACES Executive Committee for the next 2-year term at the 93rd ExCo meeting held October 1st 2017 in Calama (Chile). Pitz-Paal was previously vice chairman of the executive committee of SolarPACES. He has been one of two directors […]
Thank you for participating in SolarPACES 2017 SolarPACES 2017 was held successfully in Santiago de Chile. We were happy to welcome participants from 38 countries! We would like to thank everyone for attending the conference. Thanks to all authors for their high quality contributions. Also many thanks to the scientific committee for their dedicated support […]
American citizens had no water after Category 5 Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, a US Territory How we talk about the climate crisis matters. A recent study found that not nearly enough Americans discuss the climate crisis – on a regular basis. A survey by Yale and George Mason University researchers found that only 19% of Americans hear […]
CSP industry and researchers at SolarPACES 2017 Conference Subprogram: Soft Costs Funding Number: Request for Information: DE-FOA-0001818 The SunShot Initiative has issued a request for information (RFI) to gather insights about integrated data and analysis needs across the solar value chain. The goal is to better understand the information-related problems and questions that exist today for key solar […]
. DOE-backed startup Skysun aims to do away with fiddly motors and support structures By Jason Deign for Greentechmedia Just when it looked like concentrated solar power (CSP) couldn’t get cheaper, a U.S.-based startup says it’s found a way of cutting heliostat costs by a third. Skysun, of Bay Village, Ohio, is aiming to achieve the […]
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