9Feb

Solar tower will power Las Vegas at night

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Solar tower will power Las Vegas at night

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SolarReserve has completed the central point of a solar project that uses molten salt storage to deliver power to the grid well after the sun has gone down.

The startup company today said it has completed the 540-foot tower of the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project near Tonopah, Nev., which is expected to start delivering 110 megawatts by the end of 2013. When it comes online, it’s projected to have 10 hours of storage, the longest full-load storage capacity for a solar plant.

Adding storage turns solar into a continuous power source and allows project developers to earn more money for their electricity. As a result, solar projects that use heat to make electricity have added molten salt storage to their facilities.

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17Dec

China’s Solar Energy Plans Become Even More Ambitious

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China’s Solar Energy Plans Become Even More Ambitious

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The People’s Republic of China has increased its target for installed solar power by 50%. It now aims to have 15GW of installed solar generating capacity, by 2015, Reuters reports.

The move comes just months after China doubled its solar goal from 5 GW to 10 GW earlier this year, following the partial meltdown of the Fukishama nuclear plant in Japan.

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9Dec

gmp Architekten Breaks Ground on New Solar Eco-Park in Qingdao, China

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A German and Chinese partnership dedicated to sustainable building and renewable energy broke ground this week on a new eco-park in Qingdao. Located off the coast of the Yellow Sea, the eco-park will be a new city quarter for living and working that will be powered largely by renewable energy. The region is known for a higher than average solar resource and the community will aim to use as much solar energy as possible. Germany-based gmp Architekten is responsible for the master plan, which is supported by the German Society for Sustainable Building (DGNB) and Transsolar Consultants.
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7Dec

Why aren’t we investing more on improving energy storage technology?

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Why aren't we investing more on improving energy storage technology

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I don’t understand why researchers are not trying harder to crack better energy storage solutions. Instead, all the focus seems to be on finding new clean sources of energy. That’s important, of course, but if we could vastly improve energy storage we could presumably make do with the energy sources we already have? And intermittent renewables such as wind and solar would be so much more attractive.

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30Nov

BrightSource Going Big on Energy Storage

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BrightSource Energy is a leading solar thermal energy company. In California, it’s in the process of planning and building some of the largest solar thermal power plants in the world. (For more on its technology, see the last paragraph of this post. For more background, check out our BrightSource Energy page.)

Yesterday, the company announced that it is adding “its SolarPLUS thermal energy storage capability to three of its power purchase agreements with Southern California Edison (SCE).” It now has two solar thermal power plants scheduled to be finished and delivering energy in 2015, and three, with storage, scheduled to deliver electricity in 2016 and 2017. (And, BrightSource — with partners NRG Energy, Google, and Bechtel — are building a 126-megawatt plant for Southern California Edison at the Ivanpah solar project in southeast California).

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9Aug

BrightSource applies for second, 500 MW CSP project in California

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BrightSource Energy Inc. (Oakland, California, U.S.) has applied to the California Energy Commission (CEC) for permission to build a second large concentrating solar power (CSP) project utilizing a solar power tower design.

The 500 MW Hidden Hills Solar Electric Generating System (HHSEGS) has been proposed for 13.3 square kilometers of privately owned land in Inyo County, California, 72 kilometers west of Las Vegas, Nevada.

The proposed project will be comprised of two 270 MW CSP plants. The CEC notes that the solar power tower technology for the HHSEGS system will utilize a taller receiver tower at 230 meters, which will allow for heliostat rows to be placed closer together, utilizing less land for equivalent power generation.

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6Aug

That “Other” Solar Tower Technology

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Giant Arizona Solar Tower (and confusing names) that is trying to find funding. Brightsource is the company that is presently building Solar Towers with an entirely different technology.

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23Jul

Twice the height of the Empire State – EnviroMission plans massive solar tower for Arizona

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Twice the height of the Empire State - EnviroMission plans massive solar tower for Arizona

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An ambitious solar energy project on a massive scale is about to get underway in the Arizona desert. EnviroMission is undergoing land acquisition and site-specific engineering to build its first full-scale solar tower – and when we say full-scale, we mean it! The mammoth 800-plus meter (2625 ft) tall tower will instantly become one of the world’s tallest buildings. Its 200-megawatt power generation capacity will reliably feed the grid with enough power for 150,000 US homes, and once it’s built, it can be expected to more or less sit there producing clean, renewable power with virtually no maintenance until it’s more than 80 years old. In the video after the jump, EnviroMission CEO Roger Davey explains the solar tower technology, the Arizona project and why he couldn’t get it built at home in Australia.

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