Solar Grid Parity By 2010 ?
Posted by Big Gav in concentrating solar power, csp, solar power, solar pv, thin film solar
Renewable Energy Focus reports Swiss thin film solar power company Oerlikon Solar hopes to reach grid parity in the near future - Oerlikon expects grid parity by 2010.
Oerlikon Solar has said its facilities will achieve grid parity by 2010 in connection with the opening of the company’s new fully-automated thin-film pilot line at Trübbach, Switzerland. “Our facilities will achieve grid parity by 2010,” Jeannine Sargent, Oerlikon Solar Chief Executive Officer, said at the opening in August.
The new pilot line will be used for production of, and research into, the latest thin-film solar modules. “The new pilot line will further strengthen the Trübbach site. It is the hub of our worldwide research and development operations,” says Uwe Krüger, Chief Executive Officer at Oerlikon Corporation AG. ...
According to Oerlikon Solar, experts valued the thin-film solar market at more than US$17 billion in 2007.
On the solar thermal power front, Cleantech.com reports that SolarReserve has raised a large amount of new funding to build utility scale power plants - SolarReserve pulls in cash for solar thermal.
The $140 million round will support the development of large-scale power plants using molten salt storage. Santa Monica, Calif.-based SolarReserve is moving forward with its plans for utility-scale solar thermal, announcing today that it raised $140 million in financing.
The company said the new funding will go toward the development of more than 5,000 megawatts of power plants using molten salt storage technology in the U.S. and internationally. Each plant is expected to range in size from 50 MW to 300 MW. ...
SolarReserve was formed at the beginning of this year by the US Renewables Group to commercialize a concentrated solar thermal system using molten salt for energy storage, which could provide round the clock power availability (see Concentrated solar gets salty).
"It gives the plants using this technology much greater availability in terms of storing the heat and keeping the plant running when the sun isn't available anymore," said Michael Ware, managing director at Good Energies. "It gives the potentional buyer, or the buyer of the power that the plant produces, greater flexibility."
Posts
