AfDB grants funds for phase ll of Ouarzazate solar project

The board of directors of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) granted one loan of €100 million (approx. US$ 123 million) and another of US$ 119 million for the development of the second phase of the Ouarzazate solar complex in Morocco. The announcement was made on 3 December 2014.

The funds for the first loan come from the AfDB’s own resources whereas the latter’s come from the Clean Technology Fund.

The second phase includes plans to develop the Noor II and III projects, with a generation capacity of up to 350MW.

According to the press release, Morocco "currently depends on external sources for 95% of its primary energy needs". It also highlights the fact that "the country’s energy consumption increased by an average of 7.2% between 2002 and 2012".

In order to meet these demands, Morocco has set a target of developing 2,000 MW of solar power by 2020.

The AfDB awarded two loans (of €100 million and US$100 million respectively) for the development of the first phase of the Ouarzazate project in 2012. The first 160MW are expected to come into operation in October 2015.

Mojave entered into commercial operation

Abengoa Yield announced that its 280 MW trough plant located in California began commercial operation on 1 December 2014.

The plant is located 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles and, according to the company, “Mojave generates clean electricity to power approximately 90,000 households in California, preventing the emission of 350,000 tons of CO2 annually”. The project employed nearly 2,200 people during the construction phase.

Mojave will supply electricity to Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E), under a 25-year power purchase agreement.

Abengoa Yield also owns Solana, a solar plant located in Arizona, which began operation in October 2013. It is a 280 MW trough plant, with six hours of thermal energy storage capacity and it supplies energy to Arizona Public Service (APS), under a 30-year power purchase agreement.

Solar Reserve’s Crescent Dunes awarded “Best Project” by ENR Southwest

SolarReserve was awarded two Engineering News Record (ENR) Southwest "Best Project" Awards for its Crescent Dunes project in Nevada.

The project was named Best Overall and Best Energy/Industrial construction project. ENR's Best Projects Awards honour the companies that created the best engineering projects in the U.S. in 2014.

The jury was comprised of “prominent industry professionals” and “the categories awarded cover a variety of building and highway/heavy categories, from Best Green Project to Best Highway Project”, according to the written statement.

Crescent Dunes is a 110 MW tower project located in Nevada and it is expected to begin commercial operation in February 2015. The plant will supply energy to NV Energy, under a 25-year power purchase agreement.

Sundrop Farms and KKR Partners join forces to develop a glasshouse powered with CSP

Sundrop Farms Holdings Limited, a company involved in the agribusiness sector, announced that it has received funding from investment firm KKR to expand its glasshouse facility in South Australia.

The funding will help the centre, located in Port Augusta, to finance a new 20-hectare greenhouse installation powered with CSP systems. According to the company, it will be able to produce “more than 15,000 tons of vegetables annually for markets across Australia”.

The new company aims “to develop a hub of agricultural innovation for arid climates in Port Augusta which will allow for further development in countries with similar environmental conditions.”

According to the press release, Sundrop's technology “is intended to grow crops with minimal requirements of water while using clean renewable energy to meet the electriciy, heat and desalination requirements, especially aimed to be deployed in arid regions”.

The construction works will be carried out by international contractors John Holland Group, Aalborg CSP and Van der Hoeven. They will begin this month and should be completed in 2016, according to the statement.

Three Cypriot organisations contribute to develop research in the CSP realm

FOSS Research Center for Sustainable Energy, University of Cyprus and Alfa Mediterranean Enterprises Ltd. joined forces to support “solar research” and “better ways of integrating CSP to the network”. The announcement was made on 4 December 2014.

To achieve this goal, “Alfa Mediterranean is to install, for the first time in Cyprus, an innovative system that allows production of electricity from CSP”.

The system will feature “CSP with storage” and will “consist of towers, which have solar receivers and heat storage tanks, heliostats and steam generators”. The company won the “NER300” competition for innovative renewable energy technology granted by the European Commission and received funding of €60.2 million.