Posts Tagged by CSP
Solar Thermal Deserves Our Support
| May 13, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Solar Thermal |
Here’s a good article on a recently completed solar thermal tower (aka concentrated solar power or CSP) in the desert between Las Vegas and Reno, NV.
The thing to like about solar thermal, as we’ve often discussed here, is that it affords us a fairly low-cost way of storing energy and delivering it when the sun isn’t shining. This is due to the fact that in today’s world, we can store heat energy (in vats of molten salt) far less expensively than we can store electrical energy (in batteries). Thus solar thermal installations can be treated as baseload, delivering power on a consistent 24X7 basis.
That’s the good news. Read More
Solar Thermal Comes To Namibia
| May 10, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Solar Thermal |
Here’s an interview with 2GreenEnergy Associate Agostinho Miguel Garcia, who’s working on a very interesting solar thermal (concentrated solar power / CSP) project in Namibia – a country whose conditions are perfect for CSP.
Agostinho’s headquartered in Lisbon, but works all over the Eastern Hemisphere. Great guy.
In response to my congratulatory email, Agostinho writes: ”Thank you! This is very important for Namibia. I hope this brings them on the CSP map.”
I hope so too.
How Much Solar Thermal Would Be Required to Provide 100% of Our Energy Needs?
| April 20, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Solar Thermal |
I’ve often written about how astonishingly little of the Earth’s surface needs to be covered in a solar collecting technology, e.g., solar thermal, in order to provide 100% of the world’s energy needs. Linked above is a wonderful graphic that makes this clear.
Don’t get me wrong: the task of deploying that much solar thermal is not something that we can do overnight, but it sure provides something to think about. We receive 6000 times more energy from the sun every day than we need to supply all our energy needs. It sure seems a shame that we can’t come up with a way of making this happen, and that, as a consequence, we keep depleting our ever-shrinking supply of fossil fuels, while destroying our natural environment.
Infographic on Solar Energy
| March 6, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Solar Thermal |
Here’s another in our ongoing series of infographics, designed to offer young people and clean energy newcomers an accessible introduction to the subject. Here, we provide an objective look at the “pros and cons” of solar.
While we advocate in favor of solar generally, we believe that it’s best to arm people with the unvarnished facts, one of which is “there is no such thing as a free lunch,” i.e., all forms of energy generation come with certain costs and other downsides. It’s by understanding the totality of these facts that one becomes able to have a meaningful, informed, and relevant discussion on the subject.
Clean Energy Technology Is Developed in Mysterious Ways
| March 3, 2012 | Posted by Craig Shields under Solar Thermal |
It’s the birthday of Alexander Graham Bell, whose telephone came as the accidental consequence of his interest in developing a tool that might teach deaf people how to speak. To me, it’s another reminder that accidental discoveries are extremely common. My friend Wally Rippel discussed this with me last time we got together.
When Sputnik was launched, we were thinking about bombs and spy satellites. Now, the applications are hurricane observation and navigational systems. Read More
The Basic Renewable Energy Technologies
| November 26, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Science |
The ROI on Solar Thermal – aka Concentrated Solar Power
| November 5, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Solar Thermal |
I wrote recently that it’s impossible to predict the ROI associated with solar thermal (aka concentrated solar power or CSP).
What I was referring to was utility-scale CSP. Personally, I think the future will hold significant reductions in costs and improvements in effectiveness, making this technology quite workable at the multi-megawatt scale. It’s certainly not there now, but we need to keep in mind that it’s a fairly new technology, whose R&D lags PV and wind by several decades.
So what’s the ROI? Read More
Concentrated Solar Power — Hot Clean Energy Plan
| September 3, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Solar Thermal |
Here’s a few minutes of video on a business plan I really love. It’s a breakthrough in concentrated solar power, or CSP, aka solar thermal energy, made by a guy I’ve met and come to know and trust. And I like the “walk before you run” approach; the plan contemplates the development of two small (1 – 2 megawatt) pilot plants, using this breakthrough technology.
Gigawatt Solar Project Switches from CSP to PV
| August 22, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Solar Thermal |
I was disappointed to learn that the gigawatt solar project in Blythe, CA decided to switch from CSP to PV. The issue, at least on the surface, is “bankability,” i.e., maturity of the technology, along with the obvious fact that the price of PV is falling sharply – 30% in 2010 alone. But at a certain point, I’m hoping that someone somewhere sees the awesome potential of CSP and really starts to crank on it.
When that happens, we’ll start to see ideas like Ahura Energy start to come into greater focus, if you’ll pardon the pun.
Solar thermal, of course, comes in many different flavors — some (like Ahura) claiming to have made breakthroughs in cost and/or efficiency. I’ve met with these people, like the concept as I understand it, but still haven’t been told the details of the secret sauce.
Concentrated Solar Power, Aka Solar Thermal — Good Video
| July 26, 2011 | Posted by Craig Shields under Solar Thermal |
I frequently extol the virtues of CSP (concentrated solar power), aka solar thermal. For those looking for a good introduction with images that illustrate the concept, the link above is a solid video on the subject.
