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.” Aalborg CSP’s steam generation system for the 600 MW DEWA Concentrated Solar Power project in Dubai Conversion would repurpose [...]
Researchers from the Center for Solar Energy Technologies of Fraunhofer Chile have conducted a comparative analysis which shows that the lowest levelized cost of energy (LCOE ) in Chile can be achieved by a combination of large scale PV and concentrated solar power (CSP). The Cerro Dominador PV-CSP project [...]
A Saudi developer’s plan to harness the sun 24/7 is sparking a renewable energy revolution in the region. ACWA Power is the main developer on the Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum Solar Park. Saudi Arabia is embracing a new, more efficient way to harness solar power for electricity, inspired by [...]
The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has announced the winning tender for the fourth phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, the largest single-site concentrated solar power project in the world. DEWA awarded the tender to a consortium of Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power and China’s Shanghai [...]
Sandia National Laboratories is currently seeking applications from industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and individuals to further technologies related to Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) at the National Solar Thermal Test Facility (NSTTF), a Core Capability and Technology Deployment Center of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies [...]
Pumping hot molten silicon is the key to gigawatt-scale thermal storage. “This is the technological step that we made that preceded this,” said Henry. At this scale, you would need to able to pump a very large volume of very hot silicon through the enormous network of carbon graphite pipes. [...]
The Spanish government on Tuesday approved the energy storage strategy, targeting some 20 GW of storage capacity in 2030 and reaching 30 GW by 2050 from today’s 8.3 GW. Storage that is currently available in Spain comes mainly from pumped hydro and concentrated solar power (CSP) plants, to which the [...]
Solar energy is one of the most abundant renewable energy sources, and effective solar technologies have great potential to alleviate the grand challenges of rising global energy demands, while reducing associated emissions. Solar energy is capable of satisfying the electrical and thermal-energy needs of diverse end-users by means of photovoltaic [...]
As expected, the total volume of 3 GW to be awarded in this first auction in Spain is split into 1 GW of wind power and 2 GW of photovoltaic (PV). As this very first auction is a non-specific tender, neither storage, manageability of delivery with a specific quota reserved [...]
One of the ways to cut costs in thermal energy storage, whether standalone or as part of tower Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) is to use heat transfer fluids able to reach higher temperatures, and with a wider working range between hot and cold than today’s molten salts with their working [...]
China, like America or Australia, is a place where things come in big helpings. The country is home to the world’s largest radio telescope, dam and wind farm project, to name but a few records. So it is hardly any surprise that China has big plans for CSP, too. At [...]
Recently, Delingha 50MW Molten Salt Tower CSP Plant, constructed by Zhejiang SUPCON SOLAR Technology Co., Ltd. (SUPCON SOLAR), has passed complete technical assessment of Fichtner, a German independent engineering consultancy company. In the assessment report, Fichtner considers the design of the plant corresponds to state-of-the-art design of similar plants in the world, the self-developed heliostat and [...]
Sustainable electricity systems need renewable and dispatchable energy sources. Solar energy is an abundant source of renewable energy globally which is, though, by nature only available during the day, and especially in clear weather conditions. We compare three technology configurations able to provide dispatchable solar power at times without sunshine: [...]
