For countries such as Japan or South Korea with poor DNI and little space for wind and solar, the value of hydrogen is that it can be made overseas with renewable energy, then stored and shipped, and used to produce electricity, heat, or propulsion. This way,...
CSP News & Analysis
Solar steam could heat MENA Region industries for less
"But even though the costs, the lifetime returns, and the speedy pay-back proved so competitive, during the three year study, Cuadros found that small and medium businesses were loathe to actually purchase and own novel technology." Only the deep pockets of the oil...
Q&A: How Risk Mitigation Finance Can Cut CSP Costs
Cutting risk in financing will be the next key to further cut CSP costs, according to the author of Non-recourse project financing for concentrated solar thermal power published in the journal Utilities Policy. Dr. Steven Geroe teaches Energy and Environmental Law and...
Novel CSP Design Combines the Solar Receiver with Thermal Energy Storage
Researchers propose combining a solar receiver with energy storage within one unit on the ground, by using a beam-down optical reflecting system
Add Hydrogen Combustion to a Solar Reactor for Carbon-Free Mining and Mineral Processing
Iron, nickel, alumina and copper mining processes are among the industrial processes that require heat at between 700°C and 1000°C. The advanced concentrated solar thermal (CST)reactors being developed by researchers globally can attain temperatures this high (and...
Could China’s Global Grid Idea Help Grow CSP?
China has an ambitious proposal for a global HVDC grid to transfer renewable energy throughout the world. Interconnected regional electricity networks would be connected to a backbone of HVDC lines that would become a globe-spanning super grid by 2050. Advancing the...
Solar green hydrogen process that cuts costs
A preliminary study of the average cost of a novel process for producing solar hydrogen in several locations in Australia finds it could come close to the US DOE renewable hydrogen target of $3 per kilogram. The way that hydrogen is reformed from natural gas is a...
Designing Solar Furnaces to Make Biochars without Air Pollution
Charcoal might seem like a very low tech product, but lithium batteries, water filtration and super-capacitors are among its high tech end uses, and the requirements for these different purposes are actually very exacting. Solar researchers in Mexico are investigating...
Start-Up VC Invests in Beam-Down Concentrator for Solar Fuel
“Our “back of the envelop” communication with researchers is that $3 per gallon of gasoline equivalent (GGE) per kilogram of hydrogen could be obtainable,” said Al Maaitah.
Morocco Breaks New Record with 800 MW Midelt 1 CSP-PV at 7 Cents
Morocco's 800 MW CSP-PV Noor Midelt breaks last year's auction price record of 7.3 cents set by DEWA in the UAE, with winning bid at USD 7 cents/kWh The Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (MASEN) has announced that the consortium of EDF Renewables, Masdar, and...
VC-Funded Thermal “Battery” is Based on CSP Molten Salt Energy Storage
Standalone thermal storage: “Incredibly cheap grid-scale storage with a very long calendar life” The new Venture Capital (VC) firm Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) only invests in technologies they vet as both “scientifically feasible at scale” and with the...
Make Carnot Batteries with Molten Salt Thermal Energy Storage in ex-Coal Plants
Retiring coal power plants could see a new life serving the green economy by storing renewable energy as thermal batteries, delivering the stored energy back to the grid using the former coal plant's existing power blocks and grid connections. Leveraging the low cost...
Study of Chile’s CSP Potential for Domestic Manufacturing
A study commissioned by the Chilean government and presented before the SolarPACES Conference in Morocco makes data available to potential participants in a Chilean CSP industry. The study, Local Content in CSP:CST Projects- Assessment of the Chilean Industry is...
Shouhang and EDF to Test s-CO2 Cycle in Concentrated Solar Power
China could be the first to deploy s-CO2 in CSP The world’s initial Concentrated SolarPower (CSP) plants continue to use the legacy steam cycles of conventional thermal plants. But steam cycle is a mature technology with temperature-based efficiency limits, hampering...
Australian Researchers Design a Solar Process for Algae-Derived Solar Fuel
Algae is a potential energy feedstock that is synergistic with solar fuels because algae can be grown in salt water on cheap desert land with a good solar resource, and it also contains the chemicals needed for making solar fuels (hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen)....
Trucks Transport Hot Particles Storing Energy 1 Kilometer for Multi-Tower CSP?
The tower form of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) is very young technology. Less than a gigawatt is deployed globally, making it a nascent technology at the “Cambrian explosion” stage; multiple innovations are still being explored to cut costs. (How tower CSP works) A...
Top Steelmaker Tests Thermal Energy Storage in Slag Byproduct to Cut CO2
Thermal energy stored in steel slag could replace fossil fuels used for heat in steel production
China Made Solar PV Cheap – Is CSP Next?
With China in the game, the outlook for the technology has gone from from gloomy to better than ever – however it also carries great risk
Researchers Test Solar to Cut CO2 in Cement Processing
Renewable energy researchers have been looking into how to cut CO2 emissions from processing industrial minerals like cement and lime, as these are responsible for a high share of the global greenhouse gas emissions. For every 10 tons of cement we produce, we release...
Study Investigates Solar District Cooling Potential for Saudi Arabia
Instead of running air conditioners on fossil-fueled electricity, University of Bergamo researchers Guiseppe Franchini and Antonio Perdichizzi propose an alternative cooling technology; using a thermal form of solar energy to provide solar district cooling in the...
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