QGEN "Confidential"

 Note: QGEN "updated" its website apparently earlier today (March 4, 2011).  They now include a section titled "Geography."  Essentially, it's a map with some regions highlighted in yellow.  It still doesn't show where all their purported operational hybrid-solar power plants are located.


QGEN also claims in its updated website that it "...has several patents pending for its proprietary hybrid plant design configurations."  A quick check of the US Patent & Trademark Office as well as the World Intellectual Property Organization shows NO patent applications having been made by QGEN.

QGEN and other world hybrid solar-gas plant "leaders"

From Renewable Energy Magazine:  "Ain Beni Mathar is the first ISCC hybrid solar-gas plant to enter service in the world (December 13, 2010)"  [note: it was built by Abener, a Spanish company. Abener will operate  for the first five years.  ONE, the Moroccan state-owned utility will operate afterwards. ONE is also the owner.]  

Yet, only two months after the first hybrid solar-gas plant in the world becomes operational, on February 2011, QGEN claimed to ALREADY be a developer, owner and operator of hybrid solar (and coal) power plants AND water desalination plants.

February 23, 2011  "QGEN (USA), Inc. is a technology-driver global developer, owner and operator of utility-scale hybrid power generation and water desalination plants.  Our hybrid plants integrate state-of-the-art concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies into conventional gas and coal-fired plant designs.  We are pursuing both greenfield hybrid projects as well as solar retrofits to existing fossil fuel-fired power plants in key markets around the world, including the Mediterranean Basin, Persian Gulf, China, USA, Chile and South Africa." 

link: MIT Energy Club QGEN - Current Energy Job Opportunities - Financial Analyst

"Apparent" progress at QGEN continues to be achieved at a dizzying pace (see page titled "What is QGEN" elsewhere in this blog).   As of August 2010 they claimed to be a developer, owner and operator of seemingly CONVENTIONAL power and water desalination plants (see excerpt from their website below).

August 10, 2010  "QGEN is a U.S.-based technology-driven global developer, owner and operator of utility-scale power generation and water desalination projects. QGEN’s hybrid plant designs integrate state-of-the-art renewable energy technologies into conventional fossil fuel power generation plant designs, with a focus on integrated solar combined cycle plants. QGEN’s track record spans projects in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia."

It appears that in ONLY six months QGEN has managed to integrate its "hybrid designs" into its EXISTING conventional plants."  Moreover, as of February 2011 they claim that their geographic scope of activities now includes the USA, Chile and South Africa (they've "expanded" beyond the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia).

And yet, nowhere in their website (or anywhere else) can one see any concrete, factual description of all these impressive achievements.

"Confidential"

Adele Schlotzhauer, QGEN's Chief Human Resources Officer and the contact person listed in a very recent QGEN job posting QGEN - Financial Analyst (February 23, 2011) lists her current employer as Confidential in her LinkedIn public profile:

link: Adele Schlotzhauer LinkedIn Public Profile

Perhaps the reason that there is no record of QGEN's hybrid solar (and coal) power and desalination plants is because they are also CONFIDENTIAL. Even the operators of the electric power grids that they are connected to wouldn't know about them.

However, that might be circular reasoning on our part because, otherwise, Ms. Schlotzhauer would have identified the prospective employer as CONFIDENTIAL in the job description and her email address would be aschlotzhauer@CONFIDENTIAL.com (instead of QGEN and aschlotzhauer@qgenenergy.com, respectively).

Someone must know the whole STORY and the facts surrounding that story.  We have to admit that we can't figure "it" out.