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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.
Interview by Rikki Stancich
CSP Today: Masdar Power refutes claims in the international press that its Shams1 project was temporarily withdrawn, re-located and re-tendered back in 2009. Now it denies that incorrect estimates of the project site’s DNI were taken. What are the facts, according to Masdar?
Shams1: No slip ups, contends Masdar
By Francesca Boothby
When presenting to financiers and developers, are glass manufacturers still referencing the proven track record of first generation plants such as the Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS) in California?
By Jason Deign in Barcelona
What happened at Shams 1 would nowadays probably be classified as a schoolboy error. Last year, the CSP plant’s owner, Masdar, confessed that it had overestimated how much sunlight would reach the parabolic trough field. It had not factored in the amount of dust in the air.
“The Shams original estimate was based on satellite data and was off by more than 10%,” says Marcel Suri, managing director of GeoModel Solar, a solar resource consultancy.
DNI: Measuring bang for your buck
Interview by Rikki Stancich
CSP Today: In 2011 Rioglass Solar opened a headquarters in Arizona. Which US projects are you currently supplying?
Jordi Villanueva: The Arizona facility is our third production unit. Currently we are supplying Abengoa’s Solana project and we will also supply mirrors for its Mojave Solar project.
CSP Today: Can you comment on how uncertainty surrounding US renewable energy policy is affecting suppliers like Rioglass Solar?
Rioglass flexes to new mirror markets
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