Earlier this month, Thai Deputy Prime Minister Yongyuth Wichaidit inaugurated the first solar thermal plant in the Kanchanaburi province of Thailand.
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Resumption of operations at the Yokosuka thermal plant would bring in an additional 2.27 GWh of power, and the Niigata No. 5 Thermal plant, adding 110 megawatts (MW).
In other green energy news, Nicaragua announced plans to produce 94 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2017 and South America's first solar thermal plant recently opened in Antofagasta, Chile.
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The biggest solar thermal plant ever built is in the Mojave Desert of California and generates 80 megawatts. (The biggest single photovoltaic installation produces 12 megawatts.) Solar thermal power prices range from 11 cents to 15 cents per kilowatt-hour, making it more expensive than natural gas generation at its lowest price, around 7 cents, but less expensive during peak hours.
Several companies have pulled their IPOs over the past year, including solar thermal power plant builder BrightSource Energy.
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Google has invested directly in renewable energy projects, such as the 370-megawatt Ivanpah solar thermal power plant now under construction in California.
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He said the technology could be used to capture waste heat from a conventional 500-megawatt thermal power plant to boost electricity out by 200 megawatts.
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The charm offensive also explains, without ever using the words "incinerator" or "burn", that the proposed "thermal conversion plant" will also pay its way by generating electricity.
KHIC, also widely known as Hanjung, had been in the Gulf since 1986, providing heat-recovery steam generators for the Jebel Ali thermal power plant in the United Arab Emirates.
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The solar thermal power plant business is all about big: Square miles of mirrors in the desert that surround 600-foot-tall towers to generate massive megawatts of electricity for multibillion- dollar price tags.
Solar One, which went online in June, is the first solar thermal power plant built in 16 years and produces 64 megawatts of electricity during the peak midday hours, enough to power 14, 000 Nevada homes.
In green energy news, this week Lockheed Martin announced plans to construct the world's largest ocean thermal energy conversion plant off the southern coast of China.
This gas provides 90% of the thermal energy needed at the plant.
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But for the most part, large power plants cannot shutdown for just one hour as there are thermal and mechanical concerns that put the plant at risk of being damaged for doing so.
The rocket engine power plant runs at a 35% thermal efficiency, versus 55% for conventional gas-fired plants.
Anne Lauvergeon, chief executive of the French nuclear giant Areva, hinted last week during a meeting in Forbes offices that Areva is developing a hybrid solar power plant concept that combines a solar thermal system with solar photovoltaic (PV) panels.
FORBES: Solar Thermal or Solar Photovoltaic? Areva Says 'Both!'
This was after the leak at the Fukushima nuclear plant resulted in other nuclear plants being shut, forcing it to rely on traditional thermal power stations to produce electricity.
She declined to give details, but the plant is being developed by Areva Solar, the division made up largely of the solar thermal company Ausra that Areva bought in March.
FORBES: Solar Thermal or Solar Photovoltaic? Areva Says 'Both!'
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