In concentrated solar thermal (CST) energy collection using parabolic trough-shaped mirrors, the heat from the sun is captured by aiming its reflection from a parabolic trough-shaped mirror onto a thin tube at its central focal point. This thin tube contains a fluid...
A 3D-Printed solar receiver could solve some problems holding back a new technology: High-temperature solar receivers - for solar thermochemistry and industrial heat - can be prone to uneven heat distribution. These temperature differences create thermal stress,...
High-temperature liquid sodium receivers able to run at over 700°C may allow use of modular multi-tower system configurations similar to that being developed by the Australian concentrated solar firm Vast for next-generation sodium-based concentrating solar power...
MIT's Heat-based solar hydrogen from a train of solar reactors boasts 70% heat recovery and heat-to-hydrogen from 10% to 40% In solar reactors that use solar-heated thermo-chemistry to produce hydrogen from water, heat recovery is needed to increase efficiency and,...
NREL's Sand-based 100-hour long-duration thermal energy storage technology moves to demonstration phase at 10 hours Four years ago, researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) won Department of Energy (DOE) ARPA-E funding to invent a new...
Climate policy in the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provides powerful incentives to generate renewable energy and phase out fossil fuel production. One way is to repurpose old fossil fuel infrastructure as clean energy. Laws already require that oil and gas...
A demo of 1000-hour thermal energy storage in depleted oil wells is one of the breakthrough new climate technologies to have received funding from the US Department of Energy (with $6 million) this year. This thermal energy storage, GeoTES (Geologic Thermal Energy...
How a solar technology that harnesses the greenhouse gas effect to do good can cut CO2 emissions in cement-making So how would solar-heated cement calcining using the greenhouse effect work? Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories are advancing a new way to cut...
Work in concentrated solar research is one rewarding way to help invent the transition to a decarbonized world SolarPACES talks to concentrated solar energy researchers at various stages in their careers In recent conversations with local climate protesters, I was...
Australian researchers propose using solar power to capture and store carbon in mining waste. They are doing the first techno-economic assessment and emission analysis of using concentrated solar heat for serpentine activation to produce activated feedstock materials...
Today’s commercial Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) technology depends on thermal energy storage of an extremely high-temperature liquid in huge outdoor tanks. These tanks hold thousands of tons of extremely hot molten salts, a liquid that cycles between 300°C and 600°C...
Could the Chemical Potential Analysis method work better than the van't Hoff method? NREL’s Stephan Lany proposes a new common language to help solar thermochemistry researchers select the redox materials that will most efficiently generate green hydrogen. He has...
Solar receiver efficiency in concentrated solar thermal (CST) energy is determined by how much solar radiation can be converted into useful heat for industry processes or solar thermochemistry. Heat lost to outside air reduces efficiency, so researchers are looking...
A team of industry experts have joined together to form SolStor Energy, a new US development company to deploy concentrating solar power (CSP) with thermal energy storage (TES) to supply energy from the sun at night. SolStor focuses on developing concentrating solar...
Three and a half years after a group of undergraduate researchers at Indiana’s Valparaiso University stored heat at 1000°C, they have extracted the heat in a proof of concept demonstration of the extremely long-duration potential of the redox cycle for solar...
TOPCSP, a new doctoral network aims to be the first PhD training program to respond to the growing need for qualified CSP researchers New ways are being developed to replace the combustion of fossil fuels for industrial processes that require heat, using concentrated...
A team of solar researchers in Greece is contributing to the development of a technology to produce bio-crude from mixed wet waste processed onsite in a mobile solar-heated reaction chamber. They have innovated the use of concentrated solar thermal (CST) energy to...
India has carved out an unprecedented percentage to come from concentrated solar thermal technologies in its planned renewables tender this year; over 50%. The news of the tender attracted the world’s key CSP developers and stakeholders to the International Conference...
An over 90% efficient thermal storage technology from KTH gets further refinements Energy storage will become essential to fully replace fossil fuels for industrial heat and the electric grid. Batteries are a cost-effective solution when electricity is needed as an...
How a breakthrough solar thermochemistry process that uses direct solar heat to cycle between sulphur and sulphuric acid would generate "virtually unlimited" seasonal thermal energy storage Researchers are now refining a groundbreaking long-duration thermal energy...
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