Secrecy about the price that California utilities pay for natural gas contracts is a new sign that PV has now passed market price parity at wholesale (as well as at retail: for rooftop customers). The utility-scale solar industry used to have to compete against a “Market Price Referent” (MPR: the cost of … [continued]
The solar panels manufactured today will need to power a climate-changed world over the next 25 to 50 years. They will need to be engineered to continue to operate in a climate that will gradually become more extreme.
Australia’s Genex Power is recycling a disused gold mine as a 400-450 MW pumped hydro storage project, with the potential to store and generate around 2,225 MWh daily, making this Australia’s largest energy storage project by far. The site will ultimately include 150 MW of PV — with 100 MW of that … [continued]
On May 7, 2016, King Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud announced the most comprehensive change in Saudi ministries in decades and a revamped 9 GW by 2023 clean energy target laid out by deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, in the “Saudi Arabia Vision 2030” policy paper. After the Kingdom’s complete … [continued]
China’s largest coal company, Shenhua Energy, has signed a MOU with SolarReserve to build the largest amount of completely dispatchable solar electricity in the world: 1 GW – about the capacity of a nuclear plant. After a series of high-level visits to SolarReserve’s Crescent Dunes project in Nevada, Shenhua wants … [continued]
ACWA Power has now demonstrated fully dispatchable solar for when the sun doesn’t shine, at Bokpoort in South Africa.
In 2015, PG&E customers received about 97% of Ivanpah’s contracted electrons, which is a massive improvement over its first year. But this raises a question: Source: SEC/EIA data Unit 1, Unit 3 What exactly were the engineering challenges at Ivanpah – and why did they take a year to solve? To find out, I spoke with engineering experts at NRG, … [continued]
The use of gas for generation at the world’s largest direct steam solar tower has never exceeded 5 percent, according to newly released data from NRG and confirmed by EIA and the California Energy Commission (CEC). Data Source: EIA, NRG At the 377 MW Ivanpah CSP project, the use of natural gas is limited … [continued]
Statoil’s long-awaited Hywind Scotland, the 30 MW floating wind farm at Buchan Deep, 25 km offshore Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, is ready to go. With final consents in hand last year, finance was the last hurdle, along with the addition of a small 1 MWh battery. Now, with the final investment decision … [continued]
Innovating at the lab bench scale is very different from actually building completely new energy technologies that must be pioneered from the ground up, at full scale, in the real world. Ten hours of solar thermal energy storage now supply Las Vegas with solar power from midday to midnight. SolarReserve’s … [continued]
