Ad: Manage updates with the Download App
ie8 fix

csp

eSolar lands solar power plant deal

eSolar on Tuesday said that it will build solar thermal power plants that will make 245 megawatts of electricity for Southern California Edison.

The plants will be built in the Antelope Valley of Southern California and begin operating in 2011.

The company, created by Idealabs and funded by Google.org, makes utility-scale concentrating solar power systems with a modular design.

Software-controlled heliostats, or mirrors, reflect light onto a tower where the heat turns water to steam that turns a turbine.

The company raised $130 million in April.

California is a hotbed for utility-scale solar power because the state has relatively … Read more

Solar tower of power coming to Spain, Abu Dhabi

Spanish renewable energy firm Sener and Abu Dhabi's clean-energy initiative, Masdar, announced a joint venture on Wednesday to build several power plants fueled by the sun's heat.

The newly created firm, Torresol Energy, said it plans to build at least two large concentrating solar power plants a year with a goal of generating 320 megawatts over the next 5 years and 1,000 megawatts in 10 years. A large coal-fired power plant typically can produce hundreds of megawatts of electricity.

One of the designs that the venture intends to use is a solar receiver tower to be built … Read more

Venture stores solar power with molten salt

A newly created company called SolarReserve intends to commercialize a solar power plant capable of generating electricity and storing it in molten salt.

The venture was created by investment firm US Renewables Group, which has licensed technology from Hamilton Sundstrand, a subsidiary of United Technologies. A plant will be capable of generating 500 megawatts of peak power, the size of a typical power plant.

Solar thermal technology, which uses heat intensified by lenses and mirrors to create electricity, is being pursued by utilities because it is relatively cost-effective. It is also called concentrated solar power (CSP).

But because the sun'… Read more