Thank you.

There is a lot of talk about the negative aspect of size of the solar installation but the illustration does not look all that massive to me.

People in Phoenix do not use solar because they have abundant supplies of cheap hydro-power. People use gasoline in general because it has been a very cheap source of energy for quite some time. As that is changing new forms of power generation will become viable – we hope. Will

-scott

Something is wrong! The technolgy has been around for more than twenty years and it’s just being ignored. Where small investments, far less than your BMW, with paybacks of seven to ten years could readily provide in excess of 50% of the energy used in the region. The people just sit on their hands and wait for someone to take care of them – the goverment – the utility – the oil producers – the automakers (where are the electric cars). Well the utility or at least a foriegn utility says OK we’ll do it. We will spend the billions of $$ and we will get our money back even though it may take thirty years. The same people that won’t put a collector on their roof (space that is already wasted) will pay more for those plants and its power.

Meanwhile the growth for electric power parades along at 280MW/year in the valley of the sun. And almost everyday in the valley of the sun (I guess 335 days/yr, cause we get the other 30 in upstate NY) the power of the universe bestows in excess of 10,000 times the energy needed.

cjreilly

Yet within the past decade or so, a Skytrain and subway have been built, with extensions underway or planned — two systems that have visibly ease Bangkok’s notorious traffic congestion.

And that’s despite the strong political influence of multinational oil companies, which have a very strong presence here.

Further, under government prodding, more and more taxis are switching from ordinary gas to natural gas. It’s true that service stations having natural gas for refills aren’t as common as those offering ordinary gas and diesel, but they’re there, and their number is increasing, if slowly.

I was surprised to read about the gone-by-the-wayside electric vehicle. Guess people making those observations haven’t heard about (to cite but one example) the explosion in sales of electrically-powered bicycles in China. (Yes, the batteries present a very large environmental challenge, but I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the so-called “death” of electric vehicles.)

Not all the current manisfestations of alternate power-generating technology will survive in the market place. But some will survive the shakedown cruise, then we’ll see a convergence towards whatever turns out to be the superior versions.

It’s not a question of “if.” It’s a question of “when.” After all, we’re using up natural fuel reserves at a rate that’s not sustainable. Yes, experts parry over whether we’ll run out in X years or 1,000X years or sometime in between — but none submit we’ll *never* run out.

No time like the present to start looking at ways to make the transition to other sources of energy.

The molten salt is really salt peter, an inexpensive, eutectic mixture of 60 percent sodium nitrate and 40 percent potassium-nitrate. (http://www.sandia.gov/Renewable_Energy/solarthermal/NSTTF/salt.htm)
Yep, plain old fertilizer. It is non-flammable and nontoxic and very importantly, cheap. There are other better heat transport choices but more expensive such as NaK. The molten salt has been tried in proven and used in industry safely worldwide. Go to Daggett, CA and see the Solar Two that operated as a research plant flawlessly for a year to prove the concept. A little research and due diligence goes a long way before posting your misinformation.

Phil Pense

The spanish have control of this market, most of the CSP companines come from spain and have the expertise in developing parabolic troughs.

Sometimes CSP plants also have a backup natural gas tank, just incase they run low on heat to turn the turbine at night.

-Deep Patel
http://www.gogreensolar.com