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As CSP developers drive for lower costs, heliostat performance has become a key area of research. Heliostats can represent half of the capital costs of a CSP plant and misalignment can severely impact performance. Alignment issues become more significant for larger projects due to the greater distances between heliostat and CSP tower. At NRG Energy’s …
Continue reading “Self-aligning heliostats arrive to slice CSP costs”
Morocco aims to have renewable energy constitute 42% of its energy production by the end of 2020. Morocco remains a leader in the Arab world in terms of electricity from renewable energy, a study from the King Abdullah Center for Petroleum Studies and Research has found. The study reveals Morocco is the leader in generating …
Continue reading “Morocco, Arab Leader in Electricity Generation from Renewable Energy”
DOE prioritizes supercritical CSP in latest funding round The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is to provide up to $44 million to CSP-related R&D projects in its latest $125.5 million funding round for solar technologies, the DOE said February 5. The department is to provide a total of $39 million to one or two projects …
Continue reading “DOE channels $44 million into CSP; Cubico fund buys 50 MW CSP plant in Spain”
HELIOVIS has been running a demo plant in Spain for two years demonstrating their novel low-cost blow-up plastic tube solar collector for CSP. The small startup is fighting hard to get the industry-scale financial backing needed to introduce the technology and to make commercial sales. IMAGE@HELIOVIS – How the pneumatic solar collector (right) is inflated …
Continue reading “HELIOtube, plastic tube solar collector for Concentrated Solar Power”
NREL’s High-Flux Solar Furnace (HFSF) is a unique 10-kilowatt optical furnace that harnesses concentrated sunlight to test high-temperature processes or applications requiring high heating rates or solar concentration. At the top of NREL’s South Table Mountain campus, the HFSF is a unique user facility for testing high-temperature processes and applications. The HFSF contains a tracking …
Technology researched at Cranfield University that harnesses concentrated solar power to desalinate sea water is being adopted by a new smart city under construction in Saudi Arabia. NEOM – a region in northwest Saudi Arabia on the Red Sea being built from the ground up as a living laboratory – has signed an agreement with …
IMAGE@HELIOVIS – How the pneumatic solar collector (right) is inflated inside a metal frame HELIOVIS has been running a demo plant in Spain for two years demonstrating their novel low-cost blow-up plastic tube solar collector for CSP. The small startup is fighting hard to get the industry-scale financial backing needed to introduce the technology and …
Continue reading “ Clean Tech Investment Challenge in Commercializing Innovations like HELIOtube”
Wet cooling of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants would be preferable if there was plenty of available water, because it promotes greater thermal efficiency. However, most CSP tends to be built in very arid regions, and so for environmental reasons, developers increasingly get these solar thermal power projects permitted only by planning less-efficient dry cooling. …
Continue reading “Irrigation Water Can First be Used to Cool a Concentrated Solar Power Project”
IMAGE@News.cn Wet cooling of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants would be preferable if there was plenty of available water, because it promotes greater thermal efficiency. However, most CSP tends to be built in very arid regions, and so for environmental reasons, developers increasingly get these solar thermal power projects permitted only by planning less-efficient dry …
Continue reading “Irrigation Water Used to First Cool a Solar Thermal Power Project”
Manufacturers have begun looking for solutions to lower the cost of wastewater disposal. One way for them to reduce the volume of contaminated water is to evaporate water on site by using solar steam. In early 2019, Rioglass Solar, a supplier based in Spain, installed a solar steam system at the Los Frailes copper mine …