Here’s an article that tells a story that’s playing itself out all over the world – this time, in Spain: Fiery drama and fierce tensions caused by tightening budgets for energy.

Nowhere more than Spain, deficits need to be cut. (more…)

Solar thermal energy technology has taken an important step further with a new collaboration between 3M’s Renewable Energy Division and Gossamer Space Frames. The companies yesterday unveiled a new parabolic trough solar collector technology designed to reduce costs and equipment for concentrated solar power systems. CSP is a solar system whereby (more…)

The San Luis Valley in southern Colorado is a place of desolate beauty, roughly the size of New Hampshire, the driest high-elevation area in the United States. It’s also becoming a proving ground for both wind and solar power projects, some of them of vast scale. This week the Saguache County Board of Commissioners voted to issue a permit for a (more…)

CSPcontinues to be somewhat of a Cinderella alternative energy technology in South East Asia. This is despite some heavyweight supporters, not least the Asian Development Bank’s US$2mn investment in 2010 to develop its so-called Asia Solar Energy Initiative in the Asia-Pacific region and events such as the 2010 (more…)

As the CSP industry expands across the globe, so too are the incentive mechanisms on offer by countries grabbing a slice of the action. The recently published CSP Today feed-in tariff guide provides information regarding regulators, types of incentive and the tariffs offered by the USA, Spain, South Africa, India, (more…)

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 (more…)

I just had a very interesting conversation on one of my favorite topics: solar thermal, or concentrated solar power (CSP). I came across Ahura Energy of Campbell, CA on the fantastic online resource OnGreen.com, and spoke with Dr. Fareed Sfard, the company’s CEO, who boasts over 20 years experience in the Solar industry. (more…)

Take a look at any one of the concentrating solar power (CSP) projects in the U.S. and elsewhere, and you can see that – while CSP is undeniably the most efficient form of solar energy—the land needed (5 to 10 acres per megawatt) is considerable.

At least, it used to be. Now, a company (more…)

A reader points out that in talking about utility scale solar, only mature technologies are used — usually 20 to 30 years mature or more. He observes how long it’s taken PV to be seriously considered for plants over 10mW. But he goes on to talk about the Stirling Dish System, noticing that the system holds the efficiency world record for sun to grid electricity at 31.5%, and has (more…)

Energy investors and entrepreneurs often refer to the period between technologies being developed in the lab and making their way to the marketplace as a "valley of death" due to the multitude of factors that can prevent those advancements from reaching the consumer. Last week, just miles from the real Death Valley in Nevada, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and I announced a venture that will help promising solar technologies make that journey to the market. The Nevada Test site, which was once used to test nuclear weapons, will now be dedicated to testing new (more…)