German companies and research organisations launch new CSP yield assessment manual

According to the DLR Institute of Solar Research “the manual, entitled CSPBankability, will provide a concise outline of existing concepts, a detailed description of calculation methods and a selection of case studies involving various CSP technologies”. The first edition will be available in English next summer.

The project is supported by the following organisations and individuals: the DLR Institute of Solar Research; Fraunhofer ISE; Fichtner; Suntrace; Novatec Solar; IATech; Solar Tower Technologies; DNVGL and Professor Olaf Goebel, from the Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences.

The group highlights the importance of setting “an accurate definition of the expected electricity yield” when raising funds for CSP projects. They add that “a yield model requires a realistic assessment of the expected amount of solar irradiation, which takes into account the influence of varying irradiation levels as well as different feed-in tariff structures for the energy produced”.

The project partners expect they will be able to make more reliable and transparent electricity yield forecasts. This, in turn, “will be helpful in reducing risk premiums imposed on project financing, which are still excessively high.” They also claim that “by introducing a standard for the underlying predictive analyses, they will increase their relevance and make studies by different providers comparable with each other”.

The manual will be electronically accessible and, in addition to displaying the various methods for estimating electricity yields, it will feature an extensive appendix, where the calculation methods will be described in detail. The manual will be complemented by a selection of case studies involving various CSP technologies.

The first edition will cover parabolic trough systems with oil as a heat transfer medium. Further chapters will be added by 2016 and will include solar tower, Fresnel technologies and alternative heat transfer media such as salt, air and steam.

The CSPBankability project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy.

South Africa: Window 4 announcement delayed

According to Mail&Guardian, the announcement of the preferred bidders under Window 4 of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) may be delayed from 24 November to 5 December 2014.

The South African digital newspaper indicated that Wolsey Barnard, the acting director general of the South African Department of Energy, said that “there was only a slim chance of meeting the November 24 deadline”.

He also indicated that “this was largely because of the cost of linking the bidders’ sites and the Eskom grid”. The utility was going through a “difficult financial stage”, he added.

SolarReserve has been ranked the fastest growing cleantech company on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 rank

The California-based company was also rated the 20th fastest growing among all technology companies.

The rank prepared by the consultancy firm Deloitte is based on percentage revenue growth over five years, from 2009 to 2013. In order to be eligible for the Technology Fast 500 recognition, companies must own proprietary intellectual property or technology that is sold to customers in products that contribute to a majority of the company's operating revenues. Companies must be in business for a minimum of five years and be headquartered within North America.

Recently, the company also acquired Aerojet Rocketdyne’s intellectual property rights and patents related to molten salt technology for CSP.

CSP project in Canada features on the Huffington Post

The City of Medicine Hat Concentrating Solar Thermal Demonstration project has been the subject of a story published in the local edition of the popular digital media.

The project is a 1MWe parabolic trough and is built near a natural gas power plant, the Trans-Canada Highway and Medicine Hat. It is expected that it will begin commercial operation on 21 June 2015.

The CAPEX of the project is CAD9 million and it has been financed by the Climate Change and Emissions Management Corporation (CCEMC), the Province of Alberta and the City of Medicine Hat.