CSP

Morocco wants 42 percent renewables by 2020

If you think that solar energy is just fad dedicated to rich nations, read on : Morocco  has a ” goal of increasing installed renewable energy capacity to 42 per cent by 2020 and becoming a renewable energy industry leader. “ The African Development Bank Group has been demonstrating its support to scaling up renewable

Morocco wants 42 percent renewables by 2020 Read More »

Desertec gets international support

According to Enerzine [Fr] and other sources the Desertec Project is getting international support as several companies from Europe, America and Africa are joining the Desertec Industrial Initiative (Dii). The US company First Solar was the first to join in and five more companies from Morocco, Tunisia, France, Spain and Italy followed suit. Desertec is

Desertec gets international support Read More »

My humble opinion on Bill Gates’ speech at TED

Last month the founder of Microsoft gave a speech on low carbon energy and climate change at TED, a renowned event on Technology, Entertainment and Design. To Mr. Gates we need five means : carbon capture and storage, nuclear power and renewable energies (solar PV, Concentrated Solar Thermal and Wind power). I agree with that.

My humble opinion on Bill Gates’ speech at TED Read More »

World Bank funds solar projects in North Africa

The World Bank via its Clean Technology Fund is investing $750 million (522 million euros) in eleven concentrating solar plants in the Middle East and North Africa region. This is due to spur additional investments worth $4.85 billion. These projects are due to add nearly a gigawatt of capacity to local grids within three to

World Bank funds solar projects in North Africa Read More »

Concentrating solar needs huge amounts of water

Concentrating Solar Thermal is a fantastic energy source and some experts estimate that it could answer a quarter of the global electricity needs by 2050 if large plants were installed in sunny deserts. However the New York Times notes that this energy source use significant amounts of water. Since this resource is already scarce in

Concentrating solar needs huge amounts of water Read More »

Is Desertec a sound idea ?

The fact has been known for years:  harvesting the energy provided by the sun to a tiny fraction of the Earth could supply all the energy Humankind needs without greenhouse gases emissions or pollution due to operation. This week many blogs and websites published articles on Desertec, a foundation that would like to install many

Is Desertec a sound idea ? Read More »

A quarter of global electricity can be provided by solar thermal by 2050

I was writing in a comment that solar thermal could and even should provide electricity to the nations of  the Middle East and how it would much better than nuclear. It seems I was quite right. Published by an environmental NGO and various official bodies specialized in solar energy, a study notes that concentrated solar

A quarter of global electricity can be provided by solar thermal by 2050 Read More »