How solar fuels work: Concentrated solar and thermochemistry - SolarPACES
Solar fuels are made using the heat of solar thermal energy in thermochemistry reactions in solar reactors| SolarPACES
Solar fuels are made using the heat of solar thermal energy in thermochemistry reactions in solar reactors| SolarPACES
"The power grid company is requested to give priority support to the grid connection and dispatching of the base projects equipped with solar thermal power"| SolarPACES
SolarPACES and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) linked database of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) projects around the world| SolarPACES
Q&A with Outward Technologies doing lunar engineering for NASA using concentrated solar to melt regolith into landing pads| SolarPACES
Source: China Solar Thermal Alliance On September 18, the 100 MW CSP plant of the CTGR Hami 1 GW “CSP + PV” integrated demonstration project—general-contracted by Northwest Electric Power Design Institute Co., LTD, of China Power Engineering Consulting Group（CPECC Northwest）, the executive vice-chairman unit of the CSTA—achieved full-system grid connection, marking the full completion of […] The post Xinjiang’s Fresnel CSP starts operation pioneering multiple O&M automation in...| SolarPACES
A NASA-funded research team at Georgia Tech has developed a method for extracting water from the Moon to generate the hydrogen and oxygen needed for propulsion fuels for solar system exploration. They describe their experimental work in Thermal extraction of H2O(s) from lunar regolith simulant with concentrated solar irradiation: Experimental analysis, published at Acta Astronautica. […] The post A buried solar receiver to melt lunar ice appeared first on SolarPACES.| SolarPACES
Abstract: Currently the thermal effect of light has received extensive attention in the field of concentrating solar power gasification, but the non-thermal effect of light has been neglected. In this study, a high-flux solar simulator was coupled with a thermogravimetric analyzer and the thermal effects of concentrating solar power were effectively controlled. The non-thermal effect […] The post Published at Renewable Energy – Study of enhanced gasification of biochar by non-thermal conc...| SolarPACES
Solar is much researched for lunar regolth melting. New research from PROMES leverages the lunar vacuum for vacuum pyrolysis| SolarPACES
A neural network based simulation tool for Trough CSP captures a lot more detail than prior models and is fast and accurate| SolarPACES
Ten years ago, GlassPoint CEO Rod MacGregor bucked the typical business plan for solar developers, both PV and CSP (How CSP works): Sign an electricity contract with an electric utility to sell your solar power by the kilowatt-hour for 25 years and try to get financing and transmission lined up before the utility gives up […]| SolarPACES
On the final day of the SolarPACES Conference 2025, Cosin Solar received the inaugural SolarPACES Implementation Award for the 50 MW Delingha Concentrated Solar Power plant, recognizing its long term stable operation of concentrated solar technologies. Since beginning operation among China’s first batch of demonstration projects in 2019 with 7 hours of thermal storage in […] The post Cosin Solar is first to win SolarPACES new Technology Implementation Award appeared first on SolarPACES.| SolarPACES
CSTA presents its photo contest prizewinners for Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 and welcomes entries for their 3rd photo contest Like to enter your own photographs of CSP projects? Although these initial entries were of CSP in China, CSTA emphasizes that they would like to also welcome international entries for their 3rd round: 3rd Concentrated Solar […] The post CSTA presents its CSP photo contest prizewinners – 2024 and 2025 appeared first on SolarPACES.| SolarPACES
On the closing day of SolarPACES 2025 in Almeria, NREL’s Mark Mehos and Craig Turchi were jointly recognized with the Lifetime Achievement Award for transformative leadership in advancing the commercialization of concentrating solar power. Mehos, now Principal Engineer Emeritus at NREL, fostered international collaboration pioneering thermal energy storage integration, leading the development and analysis of […] The post NREL’s Mark Mehos and Craig Turchi win the 2025 Lifetime Achieveme...| SolarPACES
The 2025 Technology Innovation Award was jointly presented to ODQA, a University of Oxford spin-off, together with KTH Royal Institute of Technology, for their pioneering work advancing high-temperature air-based industrial heat. ODQA’s rotary receiver generates air at above 1000 °C, adapting principles from gas turbine engineering, while KTH’s radial packed-bed thermal energy storage efficiently stores and […] The post KTH and ODQA win the SolarPACES 2025 Technology Innovation Award...| SolarPACES
Abstract: The two-step solar-thermochemical cycle process for water splitting is a promising technology for hydrogen generation with very high theoretical efficiencies. This study investigates the operational behavior of a prototype solar reactor with thermal power of 250 kW. A multi-physical reactor model is used for analyzing the dynamical process behavior of the reactor’s porous metal […] The post Published at International Journal of Hydrogen Energy – Process behavior analysis of a ...| SolarPACES
Abstract: This study addresses the direct reduction of iron ore with hydrogen and solar energy as the process heat source for clean iron/steel making and decarbonation of the metallurgical process. A novel rotary-type solar reactor was designed, constructed and tested for demonstration of hydrogen-based direct iron ore reduction under real direct solar irradiation. Such a […] The post Published at Chemical Engineering Journal – A novel rotary-cavity reactor for sustainable solar metallurg...| SolarPACES
IMAGE from: Terrestrial Demonstrator for the Hydrogen Extraction of Oxygen from Lunar Regolith with Concentrated Solar Energy °C Thorsten Denk Working at the Plataforma Solar de Almería (PSA), aerospace engineer Thorsten Denk has further refined his solar reactor for extracting lunar oxygen directly from ilmenite (FeTiO3), an abundant mineral in lunar regolith. Inspired by NASA’s […] The post PSA advances a solar reactor to extract oxygen from lunar ilmenite appeared first on SolarPACES.| SolarPACES
GlassPoint's solar steam gets a new mining customer - in California; to replace 60% of their fossil heat for Searles Valley Minerals| SolarPACES
Source: Solar Quarter HyFuel Solar Refinery Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of Vast Renewables Limited, has been awarded AUD 700,000 through the Australia-Singapore Low Emissions Technologies (ASLET) initiative to advance the development of South Australia Solar Fuels (SA Solar Fuels). This groundbreaking project, a collaboration between Vast and global energy company Mabanaft, aims to address the […]| SolarPACES
Methanol has the lowest emissions of all the hydrocarbons. Using concentrated solar thermal energy to heat the thermochemistry to make it (instead of burning a fossil fuel to supply heat) and sourcing the input carbon from green sources would mean the global shipping industry could become carbon neutral. The award-winning Australian company Vast Energy […]| SolarPACES
Source: Press release: According to the latest updates from the project site, from August 13 to August 15, the Jinta Zhongguang Solar ‘CSP + PV’ Pilot Project 100MW CSP Project (‘Project’) operated continuously for three days, with an average daily generation exceeding 1000 MWh. Notably, on August 14, the daily power generation reached 1317 MWh, setting […] The post Cosin Solar’s Jinta Zhongguang 100MW CSP+PV runs round the clock for three days appeared first on SolarPACES.| SolarPACES
(Via Lina Hockaday at LinkedIn: Our hydrometallurgical iron ore beneficiation project (https://lnkd.in/gQS-JtAA ) is looking for a Research Assistant. The ideal applicant will be a hands-on person who enjoys laboratory work and will carry out research, documenting and reporting the results to the research lead.) Apply Now Research Assistant Faculty of Science & Engineering Perth, […] The post Research assistant hydrometallurgical iron ore beneficiation – Perth appeared first on SolarPACES.| SolarPACES
Abstract: Concentrated solar thermal (CST) systems, capable of driving high-temperature processes up to 2000 K, hold significant potential for chemical and industrial applications. This paper reviews methods for measuring concentrated solar flux, focusing on their role in calculating key optical performance metrics such as concentration ratio and optical efficiency. It also explores the challenges associated […] The post Published at Solar Energy – Advancements, challenges, and opportunit...| SolarPACES
Source: Press release SYDNEY, Australia, August 11, 2025 – Vast Renewables (“Vast” or the “Company”), a leading Australian clean energy technology company, today announced that it has secured new funding from existing shareholders and launched a capital raise to support the delivery of its flagship Port Augusta Green Energy Hub and growing international project pipeline. […]| SolarPACES
All concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies use a mirror configuration to concentrate the sun’s light energy onto a receiver and convert it into heat. The heat can then be used to create steam to drive a turbine to produce electrical power or used as industrial process heat. Concentrating solar power plants built since 2018 integrate […]| SolarPACES
