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This week’s CSP Today news brief includes the following companies and organisations: National Renewable Energy Laboratories; Godawari Green Energy; Lauren-Jyoti, Lauren Engineers & Constructors

Jyoti Power Structures, Rockwell Automation; the French Regulatory Commission of Energy, Solar Euromed, Akuo Energy, Caisse Des Depots Et Consignations.

Study highlights renewable energy potential across the US
 
National Renewable Energy Laboratories (NREL), the U.S. Department of Energy’s primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development, has indicated that every state in the nation has the space and resource to generate clean energy.
 
The laboratory’s new report, U.S. RE Technical Potential, looks at available renewable resources in each state.
 
The report establishes an upper-boundary estimate of development potential. Economic or market restraints would factor into what projects might actually be deployed. The study includes state-level maps and tables containing available land area (square kilometers), installed capacity (GWs), and electric generation (GW-hours) for each technology.
 
Technical potential estimates for solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower, and biopower were extracted from NREL’s report U.S. Renewable Energy Technical Potentials:  A GIS-Based Analysis (2012) and estimates of potentials for both PV and CSP are assumed to be unconstrained by grid limitations such as lack of storage or transmission capacity.
 
Utility scale PV in rural areas was restricted by excluding federal protected lands, water features and wetlands, and allowing installations only where land surface slopes are <= 3%.  Resulting areas must be >= 1 km2 to be included in the technical potential calculation. Installed capacity for utility scale PV assumes an installation density of 48 MW/km2. The CSP potential calculations use the same land filters used for utility scale PV in rural areas, but is also restricted based on direct normal solar insolation values  to areas with an average annual value of 5.0 kWh/m2/day. Installed capacity for CSP assumes an installation density of 32.8 MW/km2, for a trough system with six hours of storage and a solar multiple of 2.
 
Rockwell Automation bags contract in India
 
An Indian JV of Lauren Engineers & Constructors, a U.S. EPC, has allotted a $1.9 million order to Rockwell Automation for a project in Rajasthan.
 
Lauren-Jyoti, a joint venture between Lauren Engineers & Constructors and Jyoti Power Structures, has been chosen to construct a 50MW concentrated green field solar power plant.
 
Rockwell Automation will provide a PlantPAx-based power plant distributed control system (DCS) solution with solar field local controller panels for Godawari Green Energy in Rajasthan.  
 
France gives nod for 12MW solar plant in Corsica
 
The French government recently shared the outcome of the national solar tender launched by the French Regulatory Commission of Energy for the implementation of solar power plants above 250 kW.
 
Alba Nova 1 won the national solar tender launched by the government, and was awarded a guaranteed tariff for its solar energy production during 20 years. This project consists in the realisation, on Corsica island, of a solar thermal power plant with an installed capacity of 12 MW.
 
The technology featuring in the project transforms solar energy into heat later converted into electricity through a steam turbine. This technology combining linear fresnel reflectors, direct steam generation, and thermal storage was developed by French private company Solar Euromed, with financial support from French public innovation funds.
 
Solar Euromed partnered with Akuo Energy, an independent renewable energy developer and Caisse Des Depots Et Consignations, the French sovereign wealth fund, for this project.
 
France may call for fresh tenders in September
 
French environment and energy minister Delphine Batho, and industry minister Arnaud Montebourg are gearing up to release a new report on the status of the solar industry in the country, due to be presented on 13th September. Batho will announce the details of the next call for solar tenders once this report is done. The objective is to reduce the cost of production of solar electricity, develop innovative technologies and improve the competitiveness of the sector.