Posts Tagged by concentrated solar power
The Basic Renewable Energy Technologies
| November 26, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
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The ROI on Solar Thermal – aka Concentrated Solar Power
| November 5, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Solar Thermal |
I wrote recently that it’s impossible to predict the ROI associated with solar thermal (aka concentrated solar power or CSP).
What I was referring to was utility-scale CSP. Personally, I think the future will hold significant reductions in costs and improvements in effectiveness, making this technology quite workable at the multi-megawatt scale. It’s certainly not there now, but we need to keep in mind that it’s a fairly new technology, whose R&D lags PV and wind by several decades.
So what’s the ROI? Read More
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Energy Videos for Newcomers
| October 13, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
I’ve been preparing to make a few videos for newcomers to the subject of clean energy that answer basic questions on renewable energy, fossil fuels, nuclear energy, and the energy-related challenges we face. I’ll be recording a series of short talks, aided by graphics, that point out that all our energy sources go back to the Big Bang, and come forward through time to us as follows:
Solar power is nuclear, of course, as all that hydrogen that became our sun billions of years ago undergoes fusion and emits enormous amounts of energy. That which we accumulated over hundreds of millions of years as fossil fuels (ancient biomass) we extract and burn as oil, coal, and natural gas. That which we receive right now, or in the very recent past, we have the potential to harvest as renewables: photovoltaics, concentrated solar power, wind, new biomass, run-of-river hydro, ocean current, and wave. Read More
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Concentrated Solar Power — Hot Clean Energy Plan
| September 3, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Solar Thermal |
Here’s a few minutes of video on a business plan I really love. It’s a breakthrough in concentrated solar power, or CSP, aka solar thermal energy, made by a guy I’ve met and come to know and trust. And I like the “walk before you run” approach; the plan contemplates the development of two small (1 – 2 megawatt) pilot plants, using this breakthrough technology.
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Gigawatt Solar Project Switches from CSP to PV
| August 22, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Solar Thermal |
I was disappointed to learn that the gigawatt solar project in Blythe, CA decided to switch from CSP to PV. The issue, at least on the surface, is “bankability,” i.e., maturity of the technology, along with the obvious fact that the price of PV is falling sharply – 30% in 2010 alone. But at a certain point, I’m hoping that someone somewhere sees the awesome potential of CSP and really starts to crank on it.
When that happens, we’ll start to see ideas like Ahura Energy start to come into greater focus, if you’ll pardon the pun.
Solar thermal, of course, comes in many different flavors — some (like Ahura) claiming to have made breakthroughs in cost and/or efficiency. I’ve met with these people, like the concept as I understand it, but still haven’t been told the details of the secret sauce.
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Concentrated Solar Power, Aka Solar Thermal — Good Video
| July 26, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Solar Thermal |
I frequently extol the virtues of CSP (concentrated solar power), aka solar thermal. For those looking for a good introduction with images that illustrate the concept, the link above is a solid video on the subject.
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Ahura Energy Claims Breakthrough in Concentrated Solar Power (CSP)
| May 5, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Solar Thermal |
My drive up to the Bay Area yesterday included a meeting with Ahura Energy CEO Fareed Sfard in the quaint town of Saratoga. But what once was originally a sleepy stagecoach stop is now the home to a company that claims to have set the world on fire with a huge breakthrough in renewable energy.
In fact, Ahura’s innovation in the field of concentrated solar power (CSP) promises grid parity (an equivalence in price of electricity with that of coal, the dominant source of electrical energy in the US today) more or less immediately. The secret sauce? Proprietary low-cost actuators that track the sun through the sky without the expense of the electric motors and controls that normally go along with this set of technologies, eliminating the major cost components that hold back even our most advanced CSP system designs. An enormous claim, to be sure.
“I have a saying that goes like this,” I joked with Fareed as we spoke; ”It’s always cheap until you build it,” referring to the fact that, at this moment, most of Ahura’s technology is working only at far smaller scale than that necessary to prove real-world application.
My host smiled and nodded politely, undeterred by my remark, which he certainly could have taken as a cheap shot. But I wasn’t worried about his taking offense; I had seen though our many previous conversations that he is a man of science, with a gracious bearing.
Further, let’s acknowledge two facts. Here is:
1) A guy who ran 12 factories of the biggest contract manufacturer in the world (Solectron) which put more products into the market than anyone on the planet over a period of 3 1/2 years. I believe this is particularly relevant, as those were products with complexity and tolerance requirements with 3 or more orders of magnitude more complicated than what Ahura has here — which is “light assembly” (vs. real manufacturing).
and …
2) A bill of materials which truly is incredibly simple and inexpensive.
We’ll see what happens, but I actually am betting he can come up with the goods.
Please let me know if you’d like to learn more.
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BrightSource’s Solar Thermal Plant and the Desert Tortoise
| May 1, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Solar Thermal |
Oakland, CA-based BrightSource will soon be raising $250 million in an IPO to complete a 393-megawatt solar thermal project in the Mojave Desert. The project is under attack, however, as the land involved in the deal is home to the desert tortoise. In fact, BrightSource has already shaved 500 acres (and about 50 megawatts) off of its original blueprints to accommodate concerns from environmentalists.
But don’t we need to weigh the environmental impact of the project – equivalent to taking 90,000 gas-powered cars off the road, against the plight of a certain number of desert tortoises? It seems ironic that we’re so compassionate towards our reptiles when we don’t seem as adamant in our dealings with coal-fired power plants, the noxious output of which causes the premature death of tens of thousands of human beings every year.
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Concentrated Solar Power – A Bit of Intrigue at the Santa Barbara Summit on Energy Efficiency
| April 28, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Solar Thermal |
I had a wonderful chance encounter the other day with Melinda Keller, a professor of engineering at California Polytechnic at the Santa Barbara Summit on Energy Efficiency. It seems that she specializes in CSP (concentrated solar power) – and is tackling what is arguably its thorniest problem: cooling. CSP does best in the desert, but that’s where cooling is the toughest. How efficiently can you cool a fluid by blowing 115-degree air past it?
Unfortunately, she couldn’t tell me the exact nature of her project, as it’s funded with private money by a group that wants to keep the work under wraps at this point. But she asked, “Just ask yourself: What’s cold in the desert?”
How intriguing! “The air at night? Underground?” I probed.
She smiled mysteriously. Looks like I’ll have to wait to get my answer.
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Concentrated Solar Power (CSP): Lowering Costs and Improving Efficiencies
| April 24, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Solar Thermal |
In this segment of the 2GreenEnergy Video Report, I cover concentrated solar power (CSP), aka solar thermal. It appears that one of our clients has made a real breakthrough in lowering costs and improving efficiencies.
