10Feb

AROA’s Second Solar Tulip Power Plant Springs Up in Spain

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AROA’s Second Solar Tulip Power Plant Springs Up in Spain

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By Andrew Michler

Clean tech company AROA recently installed their second energy-generating Solar Tulip power tower in Spain, and the soaring flower-shaped power plant just went online this week. The beauty of the system stems beyond the elegant solar energy capturing tower – the system is designed to be modular, unlike any other concentrated solar power (CSP) electrical generator out there. The system also uses much less water than steam solar generators, enabling it to conserve precious resources on its hot desert site.
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7Feb

Twin Solar Thermal Plants Commence Operation in Spain

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Twin Solar Thermal Plants Commence Operation in Spain

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Two identical 50-MW solar thermal power plants just went into operation in Spain in January. They, the Valle 1 and Valle 2, are located in San José del Valle in Cadiz (in the South of Spain). They are being operated by Torresol Energy, and the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract for the two projects, as well as 100% of the technology and engineering, were provided by SENER, which now has 24 solar thermal power plants representing 1,500 MWe of power installed or under construction in Spain, US and India.

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26Jan

Electric car that that folds itself launches in Spain

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Electric car that that folds itself launches in Spain

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Compact cars take on a new meaning when they can literally fold themselves.

Spain will begin producing an electric car next year that’s about the same size as a Smart, but can collapse itself into an even smaller footprint when parked. The Hiriko, which means “urban car” in Basque, is the brainchild of researchers at the MIT Media Lab, and is designed to meet the needs of increasingly congested and parking challenged urban centers.

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13Jan

MIT Scientists Find Way to Maximize Concentrated Solar Plant Efficacy by Emulating a Sunflower’s Pattern

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MIT Scientists Find Way to Maximize Concentrated Solar Plant Efficacy by Emulating a Sunflower’s Pattern

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Scientists at MIT and RWTH Aachen University may have revolutionized the effectiveness of concentrated solar plants – by emulating the pattern found on a sunflower, otherwise known in science as Fermat’s spiral. By rearranging the CSP’s massive heliostats, or mirrors, to resemble the yellow flower’s petals, the solar power harvester can take up 20% less space. Making the system more compact increases the CSP’s efficacy, giving it a higher potential for energy generation.

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4Jan

World’s largest solar plant powers up

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World's largest solar plant powers up

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Spanish venture is as big as 210 football pitches and has 600,000 mirrors. But there’s a dark side

Just under a month ago, on an empty mountain plateau in Andalusia, the last of 600,000 parabolic mirrors were connected, and Andasol, the world’s largest solar power station, become operational. It is, as it glints in the Spanish sun, a shining example – literally – of what renewable energy offers.

Big almost beyond belief, it is powerful, clean and looks unlike any power station you could ever imagine. Spread over terrain which covers the equivalent of 210 football pitches, there is nothing to see behind the security fences and drainage ditches but interminable lines of gleaming, eerily silent, parabolic mirrors. They gyrate simultaneously to follow the sun’s path through the sky – for all the world like an enormous Star Wars android army awaiting orders from above to destroy the local populace.

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