csp Archives – The Green Optimistic

Shams 1: World’s Largest CSP Operates in The Middle East

Mila Luleva — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 19:25:21 +0000

The world’s biggest concentrated solar power plant has gone online in the United Arab Emirates yesterday. ‘Shams 1‘ was designed and developed by Shams Power Company, and is owned by the giants in the industry – Masdar, Abengoa Solar and Total. Located in the richest in oil reserves Middle East, the power plant covers an area of […]

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Thermal Storage Adds Value to Concentrating Solar Power Plants

Benji Jerew — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 21:21:20 +0000

Utility companies, in an effort to provide more carbon-free power, have learned to diversify their power-power generating facilities. Instead of the power grid being supplied by a single source, many different sources come together to provide power for the whole grid. Solar power is one of these sources, but has a flaw, that is, when […]

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Concentrated Solar Power for High Temperature Chemical Reactions

Benji Jerew — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 20:28:30 +0000

The conditions to carry out some of the chemical reactions required for modern industry aren’t easily achieved, some requiring millions of pounds of pressure, or thousands of degrees of heat. When you stand outside on a sunny day, you feel on your skin just a little bit of an untapped source of energy that, still, […]

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Abengoa Announces First Concentrating Solar Power Plants in Africa

Benji Jerew — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 00:56:21 +0000

Abengoa Solar, a world renowned designer of solar power systems, has just announced two Concentrating Solar Power [CSP] plants to be built in Africa. These will be the first full-scale solar projects on the African continent, as well as the largest in the world to date. Financed in part by a grant by South Africa, […]

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Spinning Conical Solar Cells Increase Output Twenty-Fold

Janina Lazo-Cruz — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 12:03:55 +0000

V3Solar has launched an innovative design to the conventional flat solar cells resulting to a twenty-fold increase in its output, owing to its concentrator lenses, conical shape, and revolving assembly. The conical shape with 56o angle of the one-meter high, one-meter-wide V3Solar Spin Cells indulges maximization of harvesting light, omitting the need for an active […]

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Spherical Lenses by German Architect Could Revolutionize CSP Systems

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 18:00:09 +0000

Traditionally, concentrated solar power systems have been made of concave mirrors that reflect sunlight onto a solar cell or from Fresnel lenses that focus the light behind them. However, there have been lots of practical limitations to using such systems, one of them being that you always have to follow the Sun – and that […]

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New Concentrated Solar Power Plant Design Reduces Land Use, Increases Efficiency

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:26:41 +0000

Probably the most efficient way of harnessing solar power is by using Concentrated Solar Power plants, or CSPs. Their design, however, is based on large mirrors (heliostats) placed in rows around a central tower, onto which they reflect the sun’s energy. These heliostats are placed in an expanding formation, the mirror in the back being […]

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Sunengy Signs Contract With Tata Power for Floating Concentrated Solar System

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 19:36:02 +0000

Indian company Tata is getting more and more involved in the renewable energy sector. After the agreement their CEO had with Daniel Nocera for producing energy from water, they now make a deal with Australia-based Sunengy, which manufactures LSAs (Liquid Solar Arrays), basically floating concentrated solar power systems (CSP).

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Efficiency-Boosting Solar Concentrators from HyperSolar a Step Closer to Commercialization

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 19:40:16 +0000

Tuning existing solar cells so they run at their best is the hardest thing to do next to creating new ones, with the most advanced technology to date. HyperSolar, a company specialized in building solar concentrators, has reached that point where they can say they'll be able to develop a commercial product in the following period.

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Eric’s Homemade Mirror Solar Concentrator Melts Metals and Concrete in Seconds (Video)

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 15:11:04 +0000

Here's Eric Jacqmain, who built his "Death Ray" out of a normal satellite dish with 5,800 small mirrors on it. He worked about 24 hours on the project whose results you can see in the video below.

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The Blythe Solar Power Project Approved by Federal Regulators For Building 1 GW Plant

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 08:52:34 +0000

The Blythe Solar Power Project, that we talked about in a previous article, has been approved by the U.S. federal regulators. It will occupy 7,000 acres in Riverside County, California, and will generate more than 1 gigawatt of totally renewable energy.

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Efficient Concentrated Solar Cell Technology Given $129 Million Credit for Development

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 19:29:44 +0000

Amonix, a CA-based startup company, is developing ultra-efficient solar cells based on concentrated photovoltaic technology, combining cheap yet powerful lenses, a Sun-tracking system and efficient silicon solar cells, but in smaller quantities than if spread on a panel without lenses.

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Beam-Down Solar Concentrator Dramatically Reduces Costs at Price of Efficiency

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:02:49 +0000

By seeking to cut costs with the production of energy and building the necessary infrastructure, scientists from the Masdar Institute along with their colleagues from the Tokyo Institute of Technology and Cosmo Oil (?) are studying how to convert old, expensive solar concentrator technology to a new and more flexible one: The Beam Down Project.

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Harvesting Solar Power in Spain With Very Efficient 30 Year Old Technologies

Cristi — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:41:38 +0000

Abengoa Solar and E.ON Climate & Renewables have teamed up to build two 50MW concentrating solar power plants in Spain. With a total investment of around 550 million Euro, Helioenergy 1 & 2 will harvest solar power in the best area in Europe in terms of solar radiation: Ecija Seville in Southern Spain. Helioenergy 1 […]

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Concentrated Solar Power Could Lower Price of Electricity to $0.1/kW by 2020

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 29 May 2009 12:45:16 +0000

CSP stands for Concentrated Solar Power, and it really isn't a cutting edge technology. It uses solar power, focused through mirrors, to heat water in a central tower (like in the image on the left), create steam, and spin a turbine to generate electricity. It's so simple and effective that it can currently deliver electricity at €0.15 to €0.23 a kilowatt.

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