Concentrating Solar

US renewables are pursuing their rise

To a new study quoted in Cleantechies, renewable energy sources should represent 16 percent of the electricity consumption in the United States in 2018, much earlier than previously thought. The US Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) projections believed such levels would be reach only in 2040 (!) Currently renewables represent already 13 percent of the total electricity consumed …

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Desertec first solar plant to start construction

Remember the Desertec project and how I was convinced ? Their goal is to build solar, wind and other renewable energies facilities to power North Africa, the Middle East and part of Europe. Well, I am not the only one as their first plant will start construction next year. With a capacity of 500 MW …

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South Africa to build a 5,000 MW solar park

The main problem with renewables today is scale. Even if they are growing faster and faster, we very rarely see projects that will bring more than a few hundred megawatts to the grids. But it is changing. Indeed, to CleanTechies, South Africa will soon build a five gigawatt park where technologies in photovoltaic and concentrated …

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Now featured in Solar Feeds !

Good news everyone ! (*) You – as well as many and many other people – will now be able to read my humble articles about solar energies on the Solar Feeds News Network. The world’s largest solar news network, it will enable me to reach over 59,000 Twitter followers and over 1,400 Facebook fans. …

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Desertec gets international support

According to Enerzine [Fr] and other sources the Desertec Project is getting international support as several companies from Europe, America and Africa are joining the Desertec Industrial Initiative (Dii). The US company First Solar was the first to join in and five more companies from Morocco, Tunisia, France, Spain and Italy followed suit. Desertec is …

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World Bank funds solar projects in North Africa

The World Bank via its Clean Technology Fund is investing $750 million (522 million euros) in eleven concentrating solar plants in the Middle East and North Africa region. This is due to spur additional investments worth $4.85 billion. These projects are due to add nearly a gigawatt of capacity to local grids within three to …

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Storing solar electricity with molten salt

One of the main hindrances of solar energy is that when there is no more sun, there is no more electricity as well. This problem is being solved with the molten salt technology which stores energy for seven hours. A Californian company is willing to build a 150 Megawatt plant – The Rice Solar Energy …

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Concentrating solar needs huge amounts of water

Concentrating Solar Thermal is a fantastic energy source and some experts estimate that it could answer a quarter of the global electricity needs by 2050 if large plants were installed in sunny deserts. However the New York Times notes that this energy source use significant amounts of water. Since this resource is already scarce in …

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The underestimated potential of solar thermal

Solar PV seems to be everywhere in the environmental news as many companies around the world are working in this segment. Meanwhile, little is written on the amazing potential of solar thermal. This may change soon. A US company specialized in solar thermal claims that Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) could bring 90 percent of the …

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