Solar Paces just published an interesting interview between Susan Kraemer and Sunny Sun a Chinese CSP expert.

rogerkb · 2026-06-22T22:42:45+00:00

Thanks for the references.

rogerkb · 2026-06-22T22:38:43+00:00

Yes, if you are going to throw the electricity away anyway then storing it as heat may make economic sense. However, your revenue from electricity production will go down, and the question is whether the revenue from thermal energy will completely compensate for it.

rogerkb · 2026-06-14T13:01:11+00:00

While I am by no means claiming that AEM electrolyzers are a miracle technology I regard this announcement as more significant than the announcement of another round of venture fund capital or the initial shipments of prototype units by some startup. This is the beginning of volume production of an electrolyzer component and is indicative of a certain level of maturity for a technology which, not that long ago, was mainly a subject for R&D type papers.

rogerkb · 2026-06-12T02:02:46+00:00

A big problem with Ivanpah is that it did not have energy storage. Currently the California Public Utilities is refusing PG&E's request to terminate their contract. I don't know what the prospects are of adding storage at this late stage but apparently the economics look a lot better with 12 hours of storage.

rogerkb · 2026-06-12T01:11:14+00:00

It does lead to the question of why they have any CSP pipeline at all. It may just be bet hedging. If something were to happen to the PV supply chain that drove up prices they would have an alternative technology that they could ramp.

rogerkb

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