The South African government has finally signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) for SolarReserve and ACWA Power’s 100 MW Redstone CSP project, ending more than two years of delays. South African energy minister Jeff Radebe confirmed the news on Twitter. He announced that the South African government had signed [...]
Global CSP capacity hit 4.95 GW at the end of 2017, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency’s annual report on global renewables capacity. The 100 MW Xina plant in Pofadder, South Africa was the only CSP plant to begin commercial operations in 2017, marking the slowest year for [...]
Recognizing the numerous benefits of regional electricity market integration, France, Germany, Morocco, Portugal and Spain signed a joint declaration, during COP22 in Marrakech, on the establishment of a roadmap for sustainable electricity trade (SET) between Morocco and the European internal energy market. An activity was launched on 7 September 2017 [...]
Sulzer has been contracted to supply 18 pumps for both solar and power islands of the Aksay 50MW CSP plant in China. Aksay is a molten-salt parabolic trough plant with a 15-hours molten-salt heat storage system. To promote renewable energy, the Chinese government has launched a first batch of 20 [...]
Nowhere does the sun radiate more energy than in the desert. Morocco is harnessing this potential to free itself from fossil fuels with concentrated solar power plants. This is exemplary from an emerging country, and a bold step that is supported by international donors like KfW. The world's largest solar [...]
Collaborative Masdar and SENER backed solar company has paved way for development of more efficient concentrated solar power (CSP) technologies. In the ten years since it was established through a collaboration between Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company, and SENER, the Spanish engineering and technology specialist, Torresol Energy has [...]
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is considering extending financing for a 50-MW concentrated solar power (CSP) project with an energy storage component in Greece. According to information released on the bank's website on Monday, the loan is under appraisal as of March 15, 2018. Source: Nur Energie The lender [...]
Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum broke ground on the 700MW fourth phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, the biggest Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) project in the world. The start of the [...]
Molten salt is currently the most common method to store heat in large CSP plants and provide a constant on-demand supply of solar power without the need for fossil fuel backup systems. Companies such as German-based Frenell, formerly Novatec, offer a turnkey solution combining a solar field and a [...]
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) today released a report outlining how concentrated solar thermal (CST) technology could be a commercially viable form of dispatchable renewable energy within a decade. Last year, ARENA called for industry participants worldwide to respond to a Request for Information (RFI) exploring the potential for [...]
David Cygan, GTI R&D Manager and project team lead, has been invited to Washington D.C. on March 12 to present GTI's hybrid solar energy system project at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) 2018 Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) Congressional Showcase. At the event, members of Congress, their energy [...]
Good decisions in the planning and construction of a CSP plant can bring about lasting O&M cost reductions that boost profitability, several new studies have demonstrated. If operations and maintenance costs decrease by 20%, the internal rate of return of solar tower, parabolic trough, and linear Fresnel plants will increase [...]
A project in the Nevada desert offers a compelling solution to a problem that has long bedeviled the solar power industry: How to store energy from the sun for use at times when the sun doesn’t shine. Crescent Dunes, run by a company called SolarReserve, is a 110-megawatt concentrated solar [...]
