New heliostat designs that combine greater automation with manufacturing and installation efficiencies could be commercially available within three years, David Haas, Director of Heliostat Development at SolarReserve and Principal Investigator on the group’s HelioSR3 research project, told New Energy Update. In October, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) awarded SolarReserve [...]
IRENA estimates that by 2025 the global weighted average cost of electricity could fall by 26 % from onshore wind energy, by 35 % from offshore wind power, by at least 37 % from concentrated solar power (CSP) technologies, and by 59 % from solar photovoltaics (PV). IRENA, the Assembly [...]
U.S. researchers are seeking data from over half of global CSP projects to help lower financing costs that are hampering competitiveness, Mark Mehos, Program Manager, CSP at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), told New Energy Update. The U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) launched October 1 a global study [...]
Sandia National Laboratories will receive $10.5 million from the Department of Energy to research and design a cheaper and more efficient solar energy system. The work focuses on refining a specific type of utility-scale solar energy technology that uses mirrors to reflect and concentrate sunlight onto a receiver on [...]
Storage of renewable energy for on-demand distribution of cost competitive and clean electricity is key for fossil-free power generation. Swedish solar technology company, Cleanergy and Masen (Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy) have an ongoing collaboration to address this challenge. The Masen-Cleanergy collaboration is now intensifying through new joint development agreement. [...]
International technology and infrastructure group Abengoa, which has developed a portfolio of three concentrated solar power (CSP) projects in South Africa, believes blending CSP with solar photovoltaic (PV) technology is the logical next step for lowering CSP costs, while also producing dispatchable solar power. The Spanish group recently completed construction [...]
Developer ACWA Power has now signed key PPA and EPC agreements for the 700 MW plant in Dubai while Chinese partner Shanghai Electric has started optimization activities along the supply chain, project partners told the MENA New Energy 2018 conference. Last month, Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power signed an Engineering, [...]
Dubai Electricity and Water Authority will tender a 300 megawatt concentrated solar power (CSP) plant for the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park before the first quarter of 2019 as the UAE looks to meet 7 per cent of its power needs from the sun by 2020, [...]
In terms of per-unit cost, the new CSP project, valued at Dh14.2 billion, has achieved the world’s lowest Levelised Cost of Electricity (LCOE) of 7.3 US cents per kilowatt hour (kW/h), according to Dewa. The CSP project is expected to provide clean energy to over 270,000 homes in Dubai, estimated [...]
Mark Mehos manages both the Thermal Sciences R&D group and the Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Program at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The emphasis of NREL’s CSP program is the development of low-cost, high-performance, and high-reliability systems that use concentrated sunlight to generate power. Mark is also the [...]
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 [...]
In terms of per-unit cost, the new CSP project, valued at Dh14.2 billion, has achieved the world’s lowest Levelised Cost of Electricity (LCOE) of 7.3 US cents per kilowatt hour (kW/h), according to Dewa. Largest single-site CSP rated at 700MW will also have the world's tallest solar tower; ground-breaking [...]
As CSP bids keep falling, there will likely be a growing price divergence between projects in countries such as Chile and the UAE at the lower end of the scale, and the likes of the United States at the other end. Auction results suggest CSP will generate power at a [...]
