Friday, July 27, 2012

SwRI Gets Two Concentrating Solar Power Research Contracts

San Antonio-based Southwest Research Institute, which provides applied research and development services, reported two contract wins with the Department of Energy yesterday. The first was an $8.5M contract with General Electric, Bechtel Marine Propulsion Corporation and Thar Energy LLC, to develop high-efficiency supercritical CO2 hot gas turbo-expanders, for use in concentrating solar power plants. The second contract was worth $3.8M, and was won in conjunction with Solar Turbines Inc., Oak Ridge National Laboratories, German Aerospace Center and San Diego State University, to develop novel gas turbine combusters for concentrating solar power, hybrid gas turbines.