Précis:The recent increase in South Africa’s power tariffs, together with greater policy and regulatory certainty has made the country a more attractive renewable energy investment prospect than ever.By Annabel Eaton in Cape Town
Independent Power Producers (IPPs), both in Europe and on the greater African continent, are clamouring to enter the next big CSP market. For its part, South Africa’s government is energetically encouraging external investment into its local renewable energy industry.
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China: Banking on renewable energy storage
January 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Précis:China’s State Grid Corporation has built the world’s biggest battery in a bid to manage its ageing grid infrastructure.By Paul French in Shanghai
China recently announced the launch of its first commercial battery storage station for renewable energies – the world's largest to date.
The project, a joint venture between China's leading battery manufacturer BYD and the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), has completed construction of the utility-scale project, located in Zhangbei, in central China's Hebei Province.
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Rajasthan: bid process draws to close
January 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Précis:Rajasthan's bid process for 200MW of solar projects will close in a matter of days. How much closer will this bid round bring the state to its vision of powering India on desert sun?By T.C. Maholtra in New Delhi
Last month the western Indian state of Rajasthan initiated a bid process for 200 MW of solar power projects. The 200MW capacity at stake is divided equally between concentrated solar thermal power (CSP) and photovoltaic solar energy (PV).
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Spanish banks: poised for CSP investments in US
January 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Précis:A strong track record in CSP project finance, coupled with dwindling investment opportunities on the home turf prompts Spanish banks to invest more energy stateside.By Jason Deign in Barcelona
Last August, the high-tech denizens of San Francisco’s South-of-Market district welcomed a new neighbour from far away. Grupo Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), Spain’s second-largest bank, had set up shop in Silicon Valley.
The press announcement marking the event made ample reference to West Coast technology stalwarts (and, presumably, potential BBVA customers) such as Google, Facebook and Apple, trumpeting the fact that the bank was seeking to develop partnerships with IT companies.
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Torresol’s Valle 1 & 2: Single tank thermal storage deployed
January 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Précis:Ignacio Larrea, SENER’s Valle 1 and Valle 2 Project Manager talks to CSP Today about the innovative storage and collector technology deployed at the Valle 1 and Valle 2 plants, commissioned this week in Spain.Interview by Rikki Stancich
This week, Torresol Energy announced that its Valle 1 and Valle 2 plants – two identical 50 MW parabolic trough plants, located in Cadiz, in the South of Spain, have commenced commissioning.
The plants are equipped with thermal storage, which will allow them to continue to produce power for up to 7.5 hours in the absence of solar radiation. The Valle 2 plant will road test Sener’s single tank storage system, as well as its latest trough collector, the SENERtrough 2.
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Primary Event:Premium`:NoImage Caption:Torresol Energy's Valle 2 plant demonstrates innovative storage and collector technologies.
Torresol’s Valle 1 & 2: Single tank thermal storage deployed
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Paving the way for ISCC: Fichtner Solar
January 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Précis:CSP Today speaks to Georg Brakmann, Founder and Managing Director of Fichtner Solar, about the CSP engineering consultancy firm's role in bringing ISCC to North Africa and the Middle East.Interview by Rikki Stancich
Even mushroom clouds have a silver lining, and in Chernobyl’s case, it was the revived interest in solar energy and the consequent transition of talent into the solar sector.
Georg Brakmann is one such example, when following the events at Chernobyl, he cut short a successful career in the nuclear sector and focused instead on promoting the large-scale application of solar energy. His vision in the early 1980’s was to supply Europe with solar energy from the Middle East and North Africa.
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Primary Event:Premium`:NoImage Caption:Georg Brakmann, Founder and Managing Director of Fichtner Solar
CSP finance: Alternative funding in the US
January 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Précis:
Feed-in tariffs and solar renewable energy credits are among the options being pondered to meet the funding challenges CSP projects now face in the US.
By Jason Deign in Barcelona
Can CSP survive in the USA without the Department of Energy’s 1705 loans guarantee programme?
Last year it backed solar projects to the tune of USD$6.8 billion, funding CSP developments such as Ivanpah and Mojave Solar and dwarfing all the other sources of project finance debt combined.
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