Sunvapor Receives Award from Energy Department for Robotic Assembly of Concentrating Solar power Collectors

Sunvapor announced today that it is the recipient of a $1 million award in the second phase of the U. S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Small Business Innovation Research program. Sunvapor proved in the first phase of their research that they could guide a robot’s arm to sub-millimeter accuracy …

Centrifugal Concentrated Solar Power could offer siting breakthroughs, $60/MWh power

A new ceramic particle Concentrated Solar Power receiver soon to be tested in the U.S. could lower the cost of energy by up to 20% and accelerate industrial heat deployment through particle transport innovations, Reiner Buck, Head of Solar Tower Systems at German Aerospace Centre (DLR), told New Energy Update. DLR’s 1000° C direct absorption …

Centrifugal CSP could offer siting breakthroughs, $60/MWh power

Last month, the U.S. Department of Energy allocated $750,000 of funding to Sandia National Laboratories to accelerate testing of the centrifugal receiver (Centrec), a new high-temperature ceramic particle receiver developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Current CSP tower plants use molten salt as the heat transfer medium (HTM) and storage media, limiting temperatures to …

Chile’s first CSP plant now 80% complete; World Bank moves to protect South Africa CSP owner

Chile’s Cerro Dominador 80% complete, online by May 2020 Construction of the 110 MW Cerro Dominador CSP tower plant in Chile is 80% complete, Fernando Gonzalez, CEO of project owner EIG Atacama Management, told European industry group Protermosolar. Located in Chile’s Atacama desert, the $1.4 billion Cerro Dominador plant is expected to start supplying power …

SolarPACES 2018 Proceedings Now Published with AIP

SolarPACES 2018 Proceedings Now Published with AIP The SolarPACES 2018 conference proceedings are now published with AIP, the American Institute of Physics (www.aip.org), volume number 2126. All accepted papers are freely accessible on the AIP website and contain an ISBN number for the volume as well as individual DOI numbers for each paper. The proceedings …

China Luneng Haixi 50 MW Tower Concentrated Solar Power project to operate end August

Luneng Haixi 50MW Molten Salt Tower Concentrated Solar Power Project is a crucial part of 700 MW Luneng Haixi Geermu Multi-energy Complement Integration Optimization Pilot Project, which consists of 200 MW PV, 400 MW Wind energy, 50 MW Concentrated Solar Power and 50 MW energy storage system. The 50MW CSP plant was started construction on …

Cost reduction in concentrated solar power plants by implementing supercritical cycles of carbon dioxide

One of Abengoa’s main objectives is to increase the competitiveness of renewable energies, especially of concentrated solar thermal technology. The Scarabeus project, funded by the European Commission, seeks to achieve this goal by introducing novel supercritical CO2 cycles in solar thermal plants. Today, efficiency values have already been reached in solar thermal plants that are …

Hydrophilic disc uses concentrated solar power to separate salt from water

Current approaches to water desalination are tremendously expensive and energy-intensive, so the search is very much on for new technologies that can get the job done more efficiently. Scientists in Melbourne have put forward one rather promising solution, developing a new kind of system that heats up and purifies water using only the power of …

World Bank guarantees operation of South Africa’s KaXu Solar One Concentrated Solar Power plant

The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), part of the World Bank Group, has issued guarantees to Atlantica Yield PLC to cover the ownership and operation of the 100-MW KaXu Solar One concentrated solar power (CSP) park in South Africa. The guarantees are worth USD 98.6 million (EUR 88.5m) and are issued against the risks of …

First Concentrated Solar Power plant in Chile and Latin America has 80% progress

The concentrating solar thermal power plant is spread over 700 hectares and can already be appreciated from the air when the region overflies. Cerro Dominador Concentrated Solar Power project, in María Elena, already has 7,000 heliostats that point to a tower where electricity is generated. This initiative will be one of the highlights at the …