This week’s CSP Today news brief includes the following companies and organisations: Spain’s Council of Ministers, Estela, Reliance Power, Rajasthan Sun Technique Energy; The California Energy Commission, Palen Solar Holdings, BrightSource Energy; Abengoa, Andalusian Innovation and Development Agency; The California Public Utilities Commission; The Department of Energy & Climate Change.

Spain to reduce profits for renewable energy projects

In a bid to reduce the $4.5 billion euro deficit forecasted for this year, the Spanish government has introduced drastic cuts to renewable energy project profits. According to Bloomberg, the profit for renewable power producers, including CSP, will be capped at about 7.5 percent.

Spain’s debt to utilities currently stands at 26 billion euros.

Luis Crespo, ESTELA´s president, stated that they cannot establish the real impact for CSP until the government announces the amount on which the 7.5 % will be applied.

100 MW Indian CSP project gains approval for carbon credits
Power generation company Reliance Power, a part of the Reliance Group, has confirmed that its 100 MW CSP project has received approval for carbon credits under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The project is located in Dhursar, Jaisalmer District, Rajasthan in India. This project, which is being handled by Reliance’s subsidiary, Rajasthan Sun Technique Energy, is to generate 2.15 million carbon credits during the initial 10 years of operations.

The CSP project is based on Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector technology and the company has a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement with NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam.

Reliance Power also stated that this is the world’s largest CSP project ever registered with the Clean Development Mechanism Executive Board (CDM - EB). CDM registration will allow the project to generate and sell Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) internationally. These CERs translates into direct revenues for Reliance Power.

CEC to conduct workshops for Palen Solar’s project
The California Energy Commission is scheduled to conduct workshops for Palen Solar Holdings’ proposed Palen Solar Electric Generating System project this month. Palen Solar is a joint venture of BrightSource Energy and Abengoa.

The workshops are being held to comment on the preliminary staff assessment (PSA), which was released in the last week of June. The workshops are slated for July 17 (topics include Geology and paleontology; general conditions; hazardous materials management etc.), July 22 (cultural resources) , July 25 (air quality; biological resources; facility design; land use; noise and vibration; power plant efficiency and reliability etc.), and July 26 (in case a topic isn’t covered).

The proposed project consists of two 250-MW solar plants for a total of 500 MW. The estimated capital cost for construction of the project as $2 billion. The plan is to start construction by the end of this year.

Abengoa opens new centre in Seville
Spanish entity Abengoa has opened its new solar R&D+i centre at the Soland Center building in the Soland business innovation park in Sanlúcar la Mayor, Seville.

The development was jointly announced by the regional government of Andalusia and Abengoa.

The initiative involves the Andalusian Innovation and Development Agency (IDEA), part of the Regional Ministry of Economy, Innovation, Science and Employment.

Abengoa and IDEA have also signed an agreement to formalise their collaboration.

The new centre will feature human and material resources from Abengoa in the area of R&D+I, and will accelerate the development and commercialisation of new solar technologies.

The Soland Center required a total investment of €3.2 million, including direct incentives and financial support from the Regional Ministry of Economy, Innovation, Science and Employment through the Fund for Generating Productive Spaces and the Global Innovation-Technology-Enterprise Subsidy 2007-2013, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), both of which are managed by the IDEA.

CPUC provides update on California Solar Initiative
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has its annual report on the progress of the California Solar Initiative (CSI), showing that the programme has installed 66 percent of its total goal, with another 19 percent reserved in pending projects. This equals an estimated 1,629 MW of installed solar capacity at 167,878 customer sites in the investor-owned utility territories through the end of the first quarter of 2013.

The report shared that in just over three years of operation, the CSI-Thermal programme has received 1,215 applications for $56.3 million in incentives. The CSI-Thermal Programme, providing incentives for solar water heating and other solar thermal technologies

CSI is overseen by CPUC and provides incentives for solar system installations to customers of the state’s three investor-owned utilities: Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), Southern California Edison (SCE) and San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E).