Three US-based Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) startups are now making the leap to gigawatt-scale CSP projects at the global level. Two — SolarReserve and BrightSource Energy — were recipients of Department of Energy federal support through the Loan Guarantee Program and subsequent ARPA-E awards for R&D that helped them refine their innovative technologies. The third, Glasspoint Solar, took a different approach.
The Chinese government has announced a pilot program to jumpstart dispatchable solar in a 20-project Commercial Demonstration Pilot Program for a total of over a gigawatt. Out of 109 applications, BrightSource Energy’s 135 MW Delingha tower was one of only 20 projects chosen for the pilot program. The National Energy Agency (NEA) program … [continued]
SolarReserve has now proposed a total of six CSP projects near Port Augusta in South Australia that would be clones of its 110 MW Crescent Dunes project in Tonopah, Nevada. SolarReserve’s dispatchable solar can be switched on day or night because it incorporates thermal energy storage. I spoke with SolarReserve CEO Kevin Smith, who was … [continued]
Originally published on CleanTechies. China’s Shenhua Group has made a major announcement with regard to the development of solar thermal energy projects in China. Shenhua Group will work with US-based SolarReserve to set up 1 GW of solar thermal energy plus storage projects. The agreement is aimed at supplying the … [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]
Originally published on Planetsave. If the Greens have anything to say about clean energy policies in South Australia, this land may showcase a 100% renewable electricity portfolio by 2030. According to RenewEconomy, the Greens have announced plans to have “… South Australia source 100% of its electricity needs from clean energy … [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]
Originally published on RenewEconomy. The US solar tower and thermal storage technology developer SolarReserve has operated its first-of-its-kind Crescent Dunes plant in the US at its full capacity of 110MW, and is now targeting Australia as its next market. The company said on Tuesday it had proposed to build a … [continued]
SolarReserve’s breakthrough Crescent Dunes solar tower with thermal storage has successfully generated electricity at its full 110 MW capacity. With this milestone achieved, the CSP (Concentrated Solar Power) project has now passed the necessary test to begin full commercial operation under its 25-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with NV Energy to … [continued]
No longer is it simply the choice between CSP and PV plants for generating renewable electricity from our sun. A growing number of hybrid plants are being launched that combine the assets of concentrating solar power with photovoltaic elements. Almost one year ago, US-based SolarReserve announced its Copiapó CSP-PV hybrid … [continued]
