Join us at COP25: ESTELA side event “Solar Thermal Electricity: An Essential Building Block for The Energy Transition” – 4 Dec 12:30-14:00, Room Helsinki, Hall 8

This year the UN Climate Change Conference COP25 will take place from 2 to 13 December 2019 at IFEMA, Feria de Madrid, in Spain, under the incoming Presidency of the Government of Chile. The EU and its Member States will take part as Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).   ESTELA …

Evening Peak Solar CSP Projected to Undercut Gas in Chile’s Open Auctions

Unlike in other countries, Chile’s open auctions have no subsidies or technology restrictions, directly pitting CSP against combined cycle gas turbine power plants for evening peaks IMAGE@Shouhang The Cerro Dominador group is working with strong construction partners on its Likana CSP project to cut costs and beat gas plant prices, buoyed by progress at its …

Chile Concentrated Solar Power developer predicts world’s lowest price in June

The Cerro Dominador group is working with strong construction partners on its Likana Concentrated Solar Power project to cut costs and beat gas plant prices, buoyed by progress at its first plant in Chile, Fernando Gonzalez, CEO of Cerro Dominador, told the CSP Madrid 2019 conference. As developer Cerro Dominador nears completion of Latin America’s …

Heliogen Is Bill Gates’ Latest Venture That Is Only Good For Oil & Gas

Bill Gates seems to love to invest in things that aren’t going to make much of a difference to climate change but that are good for the fossil fuel industry. The latest is Heliogen, a company which uses machine learning to make solar ovens hotter and more reliable. The problems are rife with the technology …

The solar thermal could fall to 45 euros / MWh in 2020 for some Concentrated Solar Power projects

Solar thermal or Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) is not just one more renewable. Its great asset is that it allows availability and dispatchability (ability to generate electricity depending on the need of the network) thanks to its thermal storage and therefore it is possible that it manages production on demand, even more if it is …

Concentrated solar power viable for industrial uses after exceeding 1,000°C

As their name suggests, concentrated solar power (CSP) systems concentrate light from the sun onto a small area, where it is converted to heat. Although this heat is sufficient for electricity generation – usually via a steam turbine – the temperatures they reach aren’t sufficient for various industrial processes. But now a California-based company says …

Cement production with Concentrated Solar Power

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates entered the world of cement this week with a public relations blitz for Heliogen. He’s one of the backers of a new Californian technology startup looking to use concentrated solar power (CSP) to power heavy industrial processes like clinker or steel production. The company says it has concentrated solar energy commercially …

Can concentrated solar power act as energy storage? DOE wants to know more

The Department of Energy has issued a formal request for information on methods to allow concentrated solar power (CSP) to commercially deploy as cost-competitive energy storage by generating electricity through turbines running on supercritical carbon dioxide, rather than the steam-driven generators used in many existing CSP facilities. CSP has struggled to compete with photovoltaic solar …

TerraForm Power to buy 100 MW of Spanish Concentrated Solar Power

US renewable power producer TerraForm Power Inc (NASDAQ:TERP) has agreed to acquire two concentrated solar power (CSP) plants in Spain with a combined capacity of about 100 MW. A wholly-owned unit of TerraForm Power will pay a total equity purchase price of EUR 94.1 million (USD 104m) for two 49.9-MW solar thermal power facilities located …