China’s solar increased 33.7% in the 1st quarter of 2023, while coal increased 1.8%

China’s solar increased by 33.7 % in the first quarter, while coal power increased at 1.8%. Solar now has a cumulative 430 GW online, almost half of China’s cumulative total of coal power plants; 1,130 GW. The latest quarterly report by the China Electricity Council Read More …

The Economics of Running CSP as a Capacity Resource in the 100% Renewable Future

A new paper to be published in the journal Energy Conversion and Management: X: Using Concentrating-Solar-Power Plants as Economic Carbon-Free Capacity Resources – develops an approach to assessing the capacity contribution from CSP plants with thermal energy storage in a future Southwestern US grid once Read More …

Aalborg CSP to Retrofit Coal Plants into Thermal Energy Storage

Researchers at DLR, and NREL, and the Bill Gates-funded start-up Malta have been investigating converting coal plants into grid-scale thermal energy storage for curtailed intermittent renewable energy, as low-cost heat “batteries.” (Thermal energy storage was originally developed as storage for Concentrated Solar Power (CSP), but Read More …

California Looks for Long-Duration Renewable Energy Storage Contracts for 2026

  An optimal power system portfolio for the US state of California that would drive the world’s fifth largest economy towards greenhouse gas reduction goals for 2030 and then to zero carbon by 2040, includes 1GW of long duration energy storage, an analyst has highlighted. Read More …

Sener Offers to Expand its CSP as South Africa’s Coal Plant Blackouts Continue

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 Read More …

How Solar Peaker Plants Could Replace Gas Peakers

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). Read More …

Sandia Labs R&D Helped SolarReserve hit 6 Cents CSP

Research was key to the low price record of 6 cents for dispatchable solar thermal energy at Port Augusta: SolarReserve According to Kevin Smith, the CEO of California-based SolarReserve; the company that is first to sell CSP at 6 cents/kWh, the record-low CSP price was largely Read More …

How Port Augusta Got the World’s Cheapest Solar Thermal Power

Most coverage of SolarReserve’s 150 MW Aurora solar thermal power plant in Port Augusta completely overlooked its biggest news: the South Australian Government just bought the world’s cheapest solar thermal energy. Just 6 cents per kilowatt hour. SolarReserve will sell solar thermal energy to the Read More …

How Concentrated Solar Power Works

How Concentrated Solar Power Works

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 Read More …