Solar thermal technology uses mirrors to concentrate sunlight, generating heat that produces steam to drive a turbine for electricity. In contrast, photovoltaic (PV) panels convert sunlight directly into electricity using semiconductor materials. While solar thermal can include energy storage with molten salt, PV is generally cheaper, more efficient, and easier to scale.
Ashalim producing power in 2022. You will see a blinding light when you drive by it in the desert
Here are examples of large-scale solar thermal projects:
Ivanpah Solar Power Facility (USA) – A $2.2 billion concentrated solar power (CSP) plant in California using heliostats (mirrors) to focus sunlight on central towers to generate steam for electricity. Struggled with efficiency and required natural gas backup.
Noor Ouarzazate Solar Complex (Morocco) – One of the world’s largest CSP projects, featuring multiple phases with parabolic trough and tower technology. Unlike Ivanpah, it successfully integrates molten salt storage for nighttime power generation.
Ashalim Solar Thermal Power Station (Israel) – Uses BrightSource’s CSP technology with a central tower and heliostats. Though innovative, it faced financial challenges and struggled to compete with cheaper photovoltaic (PV) alternatives.
Endorsed by Obama, BrightSource as a leading solar energy innovator. The company broke ground this week. California’s solar energy future is looking to become a lot brighter: an agreement was just made between the BrightSource Energy Company, and the US Fortune 500 company NRG Energy LLC. The joint project, a 392 megawatt solar thermal power plant, […]
BrightSource’s latest deals, Tel Aviv’s light rail, EUREKA in Israel and more headlines related to Israeli cleantech and the environment. Innowattech and the Israel National Roads Company (INRC) have developed a new technology that can detect overloaded trucks without their having to stop. Natural building techniques are being reintroduced to Bedouins in Israel’s south and […]
BrightSource Energy is expected to go public in 2011. Israeli solar energy company BrightSource Energy and French power company Alstom have partnered to build solar thermal power plants throughout the Mediterranean and in Africa. The plants will use BrightSource’s solution that relies on thousands of mirrors all focused on a central tower with a water […]
The prospects of solar energy are heating up in Palestine. Rachel reports on a new solar thermal plant at Beit Jala school. The Talitha Kumi school in Beit Jala, Palestine just became home to Palestine’s first solar thermal plant for warm water supply and central heating, Green Prophet learns. The 200 square-meter plant, which went […]