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…)

While solar thermal plant costs are expected to “decline steadily as plants get bigger”, pinpointing how costs can otherwise be reduced remains a challenge, due to the presence of many variables.

CSP Today’s latest report, ‘CSP Parabolic Trough Report – Cost & Performance’, provides (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…)

Solana, the U.S.’s first large-scale solar plant that can store the energy it generates on Tuesday was given a $1.45 billion loan guarantee by Secretary Chu.

The advantage of storage capacity is that Solana will be able to keep energy that would not be used during peak demand, thus increasing solar power’s dependability. (more…)

US Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar this week approved the construction of the world’s largest concentrated solar power plant with an overall capacity of 1,000MW. in the Mojave desert near Blythe, California.

The 7,025-acre Blythe Solar Power Project will nearly double the country’s solar power output and will power around 300,000 homes, besides saving save one million (more…)