Solar Thermal – Ausra Sold! – More Discussion
More on my coversation with John Hugo on solar thermal, who writes:
Craig: I agree, could not have said it better re: nukes.
Re: the capital intensity of solar thermal, I don’t have a cost estimate on the power block from them and turbine procurement appears to be a problem according to them. But the cost of the mirrors etc. is $99 million for 50 MW pls the power block costs. This compares to $4/watt for PV, or $200 million.
Their system also allows for a gas assist that can run after the sun goes down or during low sun periods. That can add another 25% to capacity and which has the fuel costs of gas, but that’s the same as other gas systems in place now. Better than coal or nukes?
To which I replied:
Dr. Mills, Ausra’s founder, declined to talk (to me, at least) about the cost per Watt, even though I fairly well grilled him on the subject. Perhaps he was just being coy, but according to what he said, the price of steel is incredibly important in making this determination, and that this fluctuates greatly.
Personally, here is what I suspect. An extremely important aspect to keep in mind is that, unlike say wind, the efficiencies of solar thermal are improving every month. As you’ll see in my book’s chapter on the subject (scheduled to be published in March), there are four essentially different technologies here. Dr. Mills declined to say too much about exactly what he’s doing, but it was clear that he was pretty excited by it. The only hint he gave me was that it had to do with bringing a high-temperature (thus high-efficiency, per the principles of thermodynamics) solution to a technology that had previously been thought of as low-temperature.
I’m quite confident that Dr. Mills and his colleagues will be continue to be extremely active in the business; his passion for it is obviously sincere. And I, for one, believe he’s barking up the right tree in terms of a true and comprehensive solution for the world’s energy needs.
As promised, here is a description of various technologies and will they be able to support the objective.
We’ve all had that feeling of exultation as we realize we’re in the home stretch of something that’s been a true odyssey in our lives — perhaps the end of final exams or the last few points of a marathon sports content. That’s certainly the way I feel about this book I’m finishing up on renewables. With every interview transcript I edit, I’m that much closer to having this project — and this phase of my life — behind me. 
The economy of the world is growing quickly – especially in highly populated developing nations majorly India and China. With the growth in these economies, the expansion of industries and manufacturing units would be an obvious course of action. It helps to understand that the energy needs will rise tremendously as compared to world’s current consumption of energy. As a result of growing needs, the new age era has begun the search of alternative sources of energy, such as solar, wind, hydro energy, in order to preserve the environment.
I happen to be looking through an issue of Car and Driver yesterday and noticed their discussion of the EPA’s struggle to measure and report MPG ratings for plug-in hybrids. Apparently, there are people who fail to realize that this is a completely meaningless number. Those who never exceed the battery-only range never need gasoline, and thus experience an infinite number of miles per gallon. Those who never charge their cars experience whatever number is associated with the size and efficiency of the internal combustion engine as it operates their car, given its weight, wind resistance, etc. Of course, most people will experience a number in between – say between 100 and 1000.
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