By the time this post is published early tomorrow morning, 2GreenEnergy’s young intern Fabio Porcu and I will be on our way to the Solar Power International show in Anaheim (near Los Angeles) California. SPI is the largest solar conference …
Why aren’t solar PV cells more efficient? Here’s an answer from a physicist who looks at the problem from the perspective of the Carnot Limit, i.e., the theoretical limit to the efficiency of a heat engine, which is a function …
Frequent commenter and renewables DIYer extraordinaire Brian McGowan writes: I know you like CSP (Concentrated Solar Power). Here is an interesting system. If only they would just use the steam to turn turbines instead of getting oil out of the …
Putting Concentrated Solar Power Breakthrough Into Context Read More »
Let me begin by offering this two-minute video that I think you’ll find worthwhile. The reason I showed you that is so I could tell you this: What we need to do to achieve a sustainable civilization does not call …
Achieving Sustainability Doesn’t Require Laser-Precise Accuracy Read More »
I have a great deal of admiration for the publishers of CSP Today and what they’ve done to promote the concentrated solar power industry. When I had lunch with the organization’s director, Belen Gallego, in New York City a few …
The Latest on Concentrated Solar Power – Always at CSP Today Read More »
When I conducted my “25 interviews with subject matter experts” for my first book on renewable energy (Renewable Energy – Facts and Fantasies) in 2010, I came away with a fairly exuberant viewpoint on CSP (concentrated solar power, aka solar …
Concentrated Solar Power: Is There a Reason To Stay Hopeful? Read More »
A reader just asked me this: Doesn’t all our energy come from the sun? Fossil fuels are old sunlight, and anything else we burn is new sunlight. We have to burn this one way or the other, and that creates …
Anyone who has written off CSP as a technology whose level cost of energy is doomed to remain hopelessly cost-ineffective needs to know that the Saudis are installing this stuff at a record-setting pace. Why wouldn’t a country sitting on …
Concentrated Solar Power – Will It Have Its Day? Read More »
I took a nice hike with a friend last weekend, during which we had lots of time to talk about the important issues of the day; we’re out there long enough that there is no reason to rush from one …
Can Solar Thermal Compete in the Pantheon of Renewable Energy “Flavors?” Read More »
Recently, the United States Naval Research Laboratory put into plans to build solar panels that are to be placed in space with the capability to beam the energy collected directly to Earth. Sounds like a plot to a James Bond …
