Précis:CSP Today speaks to IHS Emerging Energy Research’s solar analyst in Spain, Josefin Berg, and Marianne Boust, Associate Director, Europe Renewable Power Generation Advisory, about the longer-term impact of a non-retroactive moratorium on feed-in tariffs on Spain’s solar thermal sector.Interview by Rikki Stancich
At the end of January, Spain’s recently elected government, the People’s Party (Partido Popular) issued a Royal Decree to temporarily suspend feed-in tariffs for renewable energy generating facilities including wind, photovoltaic, solar thermal, biomass, cogeneration, hydro and biogas.
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Primary Event:Premium`:NoImage Caption:José Manuel Soria, Spain's Minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism
Spain’s FIT moratorium: Outlook for CSP
February 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Précis:The new Spanish government’s first important policy move on energy has been to cut off support for renewable power for an indefinite period starting in 2013. It could have been worse.By Jason Deign in Barcelona
It did not take José Manuel Soria long to show his hand.
Pausing only to signal support for nuclear power and take briefings from the renewable-unfriendly heads of Spain’s big electric companies, the Spanish Industry Minister took a pot-shot at the renewable energy sector barely a month after entering office.
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Australia: Solar Flagships extends deadline, re-opens bidding
February 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Précis:The Australian government has given the Areva-led Solar Dawn project a six month reprieve, and has re-opened bidding for the PV portion of its national solar program.By Giles Parkinson in New South Wales
The Solar Dawn consortium proposing to build a 250MW solar thermal plant in south-west Queensland as part of Australia’s Solar Flagships program has won a six month extension to its contract after initially failing to gain finance for the project.
Solar Dawn is led by the French nuclear energy giant Areva, which is looking to deploy the Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector technology it bought from Ausra in 2010.
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Australia: Solar Flagships extends deadline, re-opens bidding
Solarlite: Powering up Southeast Asian CSP
February 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Précis:Solarlite’s founder and CEO, Joachim Krüger, talks CSP Today through the company’s cost-busting direct steam generation technology, its biomass hybrid application, and its strategy to build a 14 further plants in Thailand.Interview by Rikki Stancich
German concentrated solar power technology provider, Solarlite, set a precedent last month as the world's first direct steam generation parabolic trough plant to supply 5 MW of electrical power to Thailand's public power network.
The development marks a major milestone for the concentrated solar power (CSP) sector. With direct steam generation, the solar radiation heats water directly in an absorber tube, which produces the steam required to power the turbine.
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Premium`:NoImage Caption:TSE1 is the first of 15 CSP DSG parabolic trough plants be built in Thailand
South Africa: Solar investment appeal
February 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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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