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 [...]
The tender process favored by the likes of Chile and Dubai has done more than anything else to drive CSP prices to record lows, according to Ranjan Moulik, head of renewables at investment bank Natixis CIB. Moulik has specialized in renewables since 2003. Speaking at CSP Seville, he cited Brazil [...]
Auction results suggest that CSP will provide electricity for between $60/MWh and $100/MWh by 2020, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency’s annual report on renewable power costs. According to the report, CSP enjoys a higher learning rate – the percentage cost reduction experienced for every doubling of cumulative installed [...]
