Comments on: They do it with Mirrors: Concentrating Solar Power

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 09 May 2008 05:34:19 +0000

Solar Dave:
I believe they chose not to use CSP for 2 reasons: the site is only 8MW, and CSP works best at over 15 MW for solar towers, and 200 MW for parabolic trough. The other reason was that the site has limited water, which means that the turbine would need air colling, which lowers the efficiency.

By: Solar Dave

Solar Dave — Tue, 06 May 2008 04:03:50 +0000

I went by the largest PV planet in the US in Alamosa Colorado (I took some video and put it on my site) and I scratched my head an thought why they didn’t use concentrated solar instead.

By: George

George — Thu, 01 May 2008 01:01:48 +0000

Anybody know of any CSP technology for individuals i.e for the cottage, campers etc?

By: Clean Energy Intro: Solar Thermal : CleanTechnica

Clean Energy Intro: Solar Thermal : CleanTechnica — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 19:13:04 +0000

[...] exciting news has been emerging about solar-thermal. It’s been demonstrated as reliable for over twenty years, and new plants are coming online, or being planned, across the world. Energy is not the only [...]

By: Tom

Tom — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 17:24:07 +0000

CJ: South africa has a good solar resource for CSP, especially in the NE of the country.

Click here for a map.

So there is potential. Most projects tend to be very large, however, to acheive economies of scale.

By: C J vd Merwe

C J vd Merwe — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 09:41:04 +0000

I am farmer of South Africa developing an irrigation farm and enjoys 345 days without any clouds per year. Can CSP be an option?

By: Alt Energy Stocks » Blog Archive » The Arizona Renewable Energy Assessment: An Investor’s Perspective

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 21:43:11 +0000

[...] The only exception to this broad trend is the selection of "Parabolic Dish Engine" (which I usually refer to as Dish-Stirling) and the emphasis of large scale Photovoltaic over small scale residential solar photovoltaic (most [...]

By: Alt Energy Stocks » Blog Archive » A Solar Technology for Every Application

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 23:44:47 +0000

[...] Linear Fresnel Reflector (CLFR) developer Ausra has been keeping long-underappreciated Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) technology in the news recently. I consider this great news, because the potential for [...]

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 21:50:24 +0000

Fred- as far as I know, there are no current plans on the drawing board for a CSP plant… but that might change very soon. The only recent plants built in the US are a small one in Arizona, and Nevada Solar One, both of which were built to help meet those states’ RPS requirements, so I doubt there are SRECs available from them.

I’ll to pass your contact information on to other people who who may know anyone trying to get a CSP project started in Colorado.

By: Fred Kirsch

Fred Kirsch — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 20:57:57 +0000

I’m researching alternatives to RECs for Fort Collins’ “green energy” plan. Any investment opportunities in CSP for city dollars?

By: Bonnici

Bonnici — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 23:32:56 +0000

I saw a solar power car in Colorado where can I find more information on them? TK: I just read an article about solar powering your Prius on EcoGeek.

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 03:20:30 +0000

Government will have to get the policies right to get these projects started, but the investments will be made by privately owned companies. Unfortunately, there are not American listed stocks that are deeply involved in this field, but there are a few publicly traded compaines in world markets.

Acciona: a Spanish firm which was part of the consortium that build Nevada Solar One
Iberdrola: A spanish utility that has a CSP arm, and is moving into the US.
Enviromission: An Australian company that is construction solar chimneys.

In the US markets, you can buy FPL (Florida Power and Light): A US utility that owns the majority of the SEGS built in California nad Nevada in the 70’s and 80’s. It may be reasonable to presume that they have some interest in building more because they have experience running the existing CSP plants.

Note: This is just a listing of the public companies I know of that are involved in CSP. The decision to or not to invest in any or all of these is your own. I cannot make a reccomendation without knowing your personal financial situation.

By: peter kyte

peter kyte — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 13:52:34 +0000

I’ve become interested in concentrated solar power… do you feel it will be private sector or government led and are there any avenues to invest in the stock market for CSP???

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 04:27:03 +0000

The great thing about CSP is that it is a lot easier t store heat than electricity. The heat can variously be stored in large insulated tanks of water, molten salt, or oil. The heat stored that way can be used to generate electricity at night or on cloudy days.

By: anthea

anthea — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 02:30:06 +0000

what do people use at night?

By: Leslie Glustrom

Leslie Glustrom — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 01:56:26 +0000

Great summary Tom–Thanks!

I especially like the idea of doing a solar greenhouse with turbine in combination with tall buildings.

Whether that particular idea works or not, it is part of what I’ve long said about unleashing our ingenuity. It is going to be such fun once we get going on all of this for real!

Thanks again. It is great to have you working on clean energy for the citizens of Colorado–and the world! Leslie

P.S. Check out the trec-uk website…. and then you might want to get hooked up with Gerry who runs that site. He and I exchanged e-mails earlier this week. Good things are happening!