As far as CSP goes, that’s been around almost as long as PV. Definitely nothing new there other than a bit of public consciousness. Energy storage, as stated by others in this thread, is largely where the body is buried. For CSP, molten salt has been efficacious from the perspective of price/performance, but it is not a new idea either. Obviously many other forces besides invention are at work here.

One of the few renewables that’s 24×7, and thus utility qualified, is geothermal. When you have a volcano in your backyard, I am at a loss to explain Hawaii not being close to 100% renewably powered. We need to stop being so darn conservative and be a little expansive in our thinking, like Von Braun was with the F-1 engine.

I’d never consider Nuclear since it’s the most costly energy ever invensted and deadly not to mention the uranium now comes from Russia. Who needs coal, nuclear and nagural gas when we have Renewables everyplace. We also have free storage in the millions of new advanced battery Electric Vehicles like the Nissan LEAF, Tesla family S sedan and many others.

The new non toxic and safe lithium batteries as well as solar panels are all recyclable. Most PV panels are warrentied for 25 years and will last 50 or more. It’s a whole new world, an EV world. Where EVeryone works together, well almost EVeryone.

One of the problems with photo voltaic panels which has received inadequate attention is that their useful life is only from 20 to 30 years after which they become toxic electronic waste. If we ever generate a significant amount of power using the PV approach, there will be a horrendous problem of recycling the old PV panels. That cost should be taken into consideration when determining the cost of electricity generated by PV panels.

Also, PV panels generate power only when the sun is shining and there is no economical way to store large amounts of power to make power available when the sun is not shining.

Unfortunately, solar electric power cannot replace coal or nuclear generating plants since the coal or nuclear plants must always be on stand-by for when the sun is not shining, even with heat storage. Thus, the cost of PV panels is not INSTEAD of coal or nuclear, but rather IN ADDITION to coal and nuclear. The major cost of generating electricity is not in the fuel, but rather, in other operating costs and the cost of investment. So, although solar power could reduce the amount of coal and nuclear material used to generate power, it would most likely cause the cost of electricity to be at least double.

Advances in nuclear power largely eliminate the traditional objections to it. Also, the federal government and utilities have recently become more aware that uranium, with its well-known problems, need not be used to generate power; thorium can be used instead of uranium. Thorium is about four times more plentiful than uranium and there is enough thorium available to meet the world’s energy needs for centuries.

For more information on using thorium to fuel nuclear reactors, visit http://www.energyfromthorium.com/.

Instead of opposing nuclear energy, 2greenenergy should be promoting the safest and most economical nuclear energy technology. Wind and solar will NEVER replace fossil fuels except in certain very limited circumstances. Delaying the implementation of nuclear power will result in the burning of more fossil fuel.