Category: CSP News Briefs

Among the challenges addressed during the particle-based high-temperature solar technology developed at Sandia is that at any one time, almost 3 tons of hot sand would be in free fall for about 5 seconds hitting the pile beneath at 60 meters a second.  The pilot at Sandia will demonstrate its next-generation high-temperature concentrated solar technology …

Continue reading “Sandia breaks ground on its Gen-3 particle-based CSP tech demo”

Vast Solar goes public as Vast with NETC on the NY Stock Exchange. The Australian firm is a previous winner of the SolarPACES Innovation Award for its unique high temperature sodium heat transfer fluid piped from multiple solar towers, combining aspects of both Trough and Tower CSP (Concentrated Solar Power) Press Release: Australia’s clean energy …

Continue reading “Vast Solar going public with NETC on the NY Stock Exchange as Vast”

To help applicants locate within qualifying regions, the DOE supplies detailed interactive mapping of the US regions impacted by coal power’s decline, both in mining and in closed coal power plants “Today, Treasury and IRS, in partnership with DOE, announced the intent to release approximately $4 billion in a first round of tax credits for …

Continue reading “DOE allots $1.6 billion to decarbonize coal country”

At the last SolarPaces Conference in Albuquerque, a group of women researchers in Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) formed a group aiming to attract and empower women at all levels to develop the skills and expertise the technology requires to foster new leaders in accelerating the world’s energy towards renewables. The group has created a SolarPACES-affiliated …

Continue reading “Women in CSP group attracts over 100 initial members, starts website”

HySiLabs has pioneered a low-cost, non-toxic, non-explosive green hydrogen storage method in a liquid at ambient pressures and temperatures HySiLabs has pioneered a method for storing hydrogen in a low-cost, non-toxic, non-explosive substance that is a liquid at ambient pressures and temperatures. The problem this solves: Every known method of shipping hydrogen has its drawbacks: …

Continue reading “Green hydrogen shipping breakthrough: HySiLabs”

Hami tower CSP project featuring novel STELLIO heliostats shown here achieves commissioning in Xinjiang province in China [Ed: the novel STELLIO heliostats  seen here, and used in this Hami Tower CSP project, won the SolarPACES Innovation Award for 2015] MASERMIC and SBP Sonne have completed the commissioning of the 50MW HAMI tower solar plant located …

Continue reading “50 MW Hami Tower CSP project with novel STELLIO heliostats commissioned in China”

US, China lead in thermal energy storage patents IMAGE@EnerTechUp GmbH  www.aenert.com Background: Concentrated solar thermal energy uses thermal energy storage. And China currently has 30 CSP projects under construction with thermal energy storage. A full analysis of successful patents at Advanced Energy Technologies finds: Various options of energy storage are described in patented solutions in …

Continue reading “US and China lead in thermal energy storage patents”

  1414 Degrees has reached a major milestone in the development of its SiBox Demonstration Module. The furnace has been installed and heated to 1420°C. The silicon will be heated by electricity from the grid, making use of surplus solar at midday and wind in the wee hours of the night. 1414 Degrees has reached …

Continue reading “1414 Degrees readies silicon for its high temperature thermal energy storage”

A DOE-led research consortium seeks to cut heliostat costs to $50 per sq m – in a central tower CSP project, its solar field can comprise 10,000 mirrors (heliostats) Source: Green Car Congress In an international effort to drive down the cost of heliostats used in tower CSP, three research groups have launched the Heliostat …

Continue reading “Heliocon seeks heliostat cost reduction to $50 per square meter”