Egypt launches a solar desalination tender for five CSP projects

According to Fady Elsayed Senior Project Development Manager, Southern Africa, at Infinity Power, the Egyptian Government has launched a tender for five concentrated solar power plants on the north coast: “The Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) has launched a tender for the construction of five Read More …

How can Synhelion’s solar receiver achieve such high temperatures?

Synhelion’s solar receiver achieves a temperature of 1,500°C and higher. That’s unprecedented. Even the Gen3 particle-based solar receiver being pilot-scale tested now at Sandia – and the DLR CentRec receiver licensed to Heliogen – operate at the (relatively!) lower temperature of 1,000°C. One of Synhelion’s Read More …

Synhelion and CEMEX make further progress toward the world’s first fully solar-powered cement plant

Press Release: Aug 3 2023 Synhelion and Cemex announced today a significant milestone in their joint effort to develop fully solar-driven cement production: the scaling of their technology to industrially-viable levels. This includes the continuous production of clinker, the most energy-intensive part of cement manufacturing, Read More …

Tour Gen-3 solar receivers at the 29th SolarPACES Conference in October

Tour the pilot-scale sodium receiver and falling curtain particle receiver in Australia During the 29th SolarPACES Conference, a day trip from Sydney will take you on a Technical Tour of the CSIRO National Solar Energy Centre at Newcastle, where the working of two gen-3 receivers Read More …

Spain seeks thermal energy storage proposals by September

The government of Spain is launching €280 million (US$310 million) in grants for standalone energy storage projects, thermal energy storage and reversible pumped hydro to go online in 2026. The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) opened a public consultation into Read More …

Australian mining to decarbonize with GlassPoint’s solar steam

Ten years ago, GlassPoint CEO Rod MacGregor bucked the typical business plan for solar developers, both PV and CSP (How CSP works): Sign an electricity contract with an electric utility to sell your solar power by the kilowatt-hour for 25 years and try to get Read More …

Published at Applied Energy – Market profitability of CSP-biomass hybrid power plants: Towards a firm supply of renewable energy

Abstract: CSP-biomass hybrid power plants are promising options for displacing electricity from flexible fossil systems and increasing the share of dispatchable renewable energy in power grids. However, they are investment-intensive technologies whose competitiveness in electricity markets is still uncertain. This paper explores for the first Read More …

Unilever to get industrial solar steam with Fresnel in Mexico

Press Release Industrial Solar and its local partner Turbo Control have signed an agreement to develop a Fresnel Collector system at Unilever’s Factory located in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Industrial Solar conducted an extensive engineering study for Unilever Mexico in late 2022. After this study, seeing the Read More …

Current Award Winners

Current Award Winners

Winners of the 2022 SolarPACES Awards: SolarPACES Chair Gilles Flamant presented the award to Dr. Christoph Falter, on behalf of Bauhaus Luftfahrt, Dr. Johannes Grobbel, on behalf of DLR, Dr. Alon Lidor, on behalf of ETH Zurich and Dr. Charles-Alexis Asselineau, on behalf of IMDEA Read More …

Online Conference April 1-2: World Bank MENA Concentrating Solar for Power and Heat 

ATA Insights invites you to attend the World Bank’s MENA CSP KIP capstone online conference: Concentrating Solar for Power and Heat (April 1-2, 2020) This final workshop of the World Bank’s Middle East & North Africa Concentration Solar Power Knowledge & Innovation Program will summarize the Read More …

Solar steam could heat MENA Region industries for less

“But even though the costs, the lifetime returns, and the speedy pay-back proved so competitive, during the three year study, Cuadros found that small and medium businesses were loathe to actually purchase and own novel technology.” Only the deep pockets of the oil industry or Read More …

Designing Solar Furnaces to Make Biochars without Air Pollution

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 Read More …

Solar Heat to Make Power + Water for Namibia: Study

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 Read More …

Scientist Devises a Solar Reactor to Make Water and Oxygen from Moon Rocks

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 Read More …

Australia

Latest in Development: 2023 Vast Solar 30 MW CST (solar fuels production) Latest Online: 2016 Sundrop Farms 36 MW CST: SolarPACES-NREL database: All plant details on this CSP project The Sundrop project uses tower CSP for onsite greenhouse agricultural production since 2016. CSP for electricity Read More …

TASK VI: Solar Energy and Water Processes and Applications

TASK VI: Solar Energy and Water Processes and Applications

Operating Agent: Diego Alarcón, Ciemat, Spain Subtasks and Working Groups Organization and Structure Task VI is organized into the following three domains or subtasks: Subtask A: Concentrating Solar Power and Desalination Plants. Subtask B: Independent Solar Thermal Desalination Systems (kW-SIZE) Subtask C: Solar Water Detoxification And 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 …