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,...
CSP News & Analysis
Long-duration thermal energy storage in sand begins NREL demo
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...
IRA incentives for clean energy from idle oil wells
Climate policy in the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provides powerful incentives to generate renewable energy and phase out fossil fuel production. Oil and gas companies are already required to cap boreholes when an oil well is depleted, to meet Asset Retirement...
1000-hour thermal energy storage to get test in California’s abandoned oil wells
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...
Solar-heated cement calcining – aided by the greenhouse gas effect?
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...
How to help invent the transition to a decarbonized world
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...
Researchers propose faster carbon sequestration in mining waste using solar
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...
Experts show different metal reduces thermal energy storage tank failures
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...
A new common language to speed solar hydrogen research
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...
Heat trap demonstrated in quartz at over 1,000°C for solar receivers
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...
CSP experts launch SolStor Energy: long-duration storage for the US
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...
Valparaiso University undergrads demonstrate multi-year thermochemical energy storage
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...
Solar engineering researchers needed – TOPCSP aims for new CSP PhDs
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...
Researchers process wet waste with solar heat onsite in a mobile tanker truck
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...
Over 50% of India’s renewables tender to be concentrated solar thermal
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...
Over 90% efficient energy storage improved by flowing heat round two pebble layers
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...
A solar sulphur cycle to make unlimited thermal energy storage
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...
Solar pyrolysis for recycling lithium-ion batteries aces Proof of Concept
As a new industry, lithium-ion battery recycling with pyrolysis could be heated by concentrated solar energy from the start One of the hurdles for concentrated solar thermal energy to decarbonize heat-based industrial processes is that most of these industries, from...
Two CSP studies quantify a trade-off between solar efficiency and LCOE
CSP solar efficiency is compared against LCOE in multi-unit CSP with s-CO2 Brayton cycle in two recent papers, and efficiency wins
Another standalone thermal energy storage tech – the Heatcube
Why standalone thermal energy storage has heated up It became apparent as CSP was commercialized that the low cost and durability of the thermal energy storage was its key advantage. Thermal energy storage makes it possible to deliver solar around the clock by storing...
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