Concentrated Solar Power – A Bit of Intrigue at the Santa Barbara Summit on Energy Efficiency

I had a wonderful chance encounter the other day with Melinda Keller, a professor of engineering at California Polytechnic at the Santa Barbara Summit on Energy Efficiency. It seems that she specializes in CSP (concentrated solar power) – and is tackling what is arguably its thorniest problem: cooling. CSP does best in the desert, but that’s where cooling is the toughest. How efficiently can you cool a fluid by blowing 115-degree air past it?

Unfortunately, she couldn’t tell me the exact nature of her project, as it’s funded with private money by a group that wants to keep the work under wraps at this point. But she asked, “Just ask yourself: What’s cold in the desert?”

How intriguing! “The air at night? Underground?” I probed.

She smiled mysteriously. Looks like I’ll have to wait to get my answer.