Special Feature: Nevada Solar One

This is a great new development!

Further information about concentrating solar power (CSP) may be found at:

http://www.trec-uk.org.uk/index.htm

and

http://www.trecers.net/index.html

and

http://www.trec.net.au/

Great to see some USA action BUT Congess needs to provide rebates, grants, or BIG incentives for individual production in SUN STATES (ala Al Gore). Also there is hugh need for large capital for mfg and research to leap ahead in scale and efficiency. This industry would provide good jobs, energy independence and green production. (I could go on LOL)

Solar power plants are basically better than fossil fuel power plants, no question. Only problem I see is that it is, CSP is really only economical in a centralised power plant, it's expensive to put on every home.

Just as information had to be decentralized by moving to the PC away from the mainframe, the grid must ultimately be decentralized so that we can all better control our own destiny. As long as large corporations control the energy we use, we won't be encouraged to be the best conservers on the planet.

But if CSP can be done in place of nuclear or new coal power, all the better. At least it can be an intermediate solution.


Tim

Which is cheaper at this time, CSP or PV power? Which has the greater potential for further development?
CSP seems to have such potential for desalinization, are there any projects underway in that arena that would be interesting? [power and fresh water}

Concentrating Solar Cogeneration Power Plants (CSCPP) may provide a key solution for the pressing freshwater and producing solar electricity under the ideal meteorological conditions in the sun-belt countries of the Middle East and North Africa region and transferring part of this electricity to Europe. These technologies can provide the necessary amount of clean energy to achieve the targets for optimizing the consumption of fossil fuel in electrical power grid , minimizing the environmental impact, and climate stabilization. More detail information about the effectiveness of CSCPP may be found at:
1. Hussain Alrobaei ,Novel Integrated Gas Turbine Solar Cogeneration Power Plant/DEC, Halkidiki, Greece ,22-25 April 2007.
2. Hussain Alrobaei,2006, Integrated Gas Turbine Solar Power Plant/ The Energy Central Network/ energycentral.com/centers/knowledge/whitepapers.
3. Hussain Alrobaei,Repowering and Modification of Grid Connected Reverse Osmosis Desalination Plants/CIERTA 2006.

CSP is no substitute for baseload energy! It is inefficient, expensive, and has its own environmental impacts.

According to the California Energy Commission, all of the solar power in the state amounts 0.2% of the electricity production. Because of the limited availability of sunlight, these systems have low capacity factors and cannot be relied upon for baseload power.

At 13 to 42 cents per kWhr, solar is the most expensive way to generate electricity. Due to low capacity factors, solar must be backed up with stand-by power generation, which adds to the overall cost.

Solar requires a vast amount of land. In order for the salts to remain molten at night, CSP requires fossil fuels to be burned for heat. This renewable technology is a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions!

Nevertheless, CSP technology, along with many other renewables should continue to be supported in hopes that a breakthrough will someday allow them to be a significant source of energy generation.

Michael Stuart's comments are generally misleading. Solar power has far less environmental impact than any other known generating technology today. Yes, the current installed capacity in CA today is a fractional percentage of the total, but the first-of-a-kind 354-MW total of 9 SEGS plants in the Mojave was constructed in about 6 years and the Western Governors Assoc. Solar Task Force concluded that several GW of could be on line before 2015. This would amount to over 5% of CA capacity. The land required to completely replace all other generation for humanity's needs would be less than 0.5% of the earth's land--and the high-quality resource in AZ alone totals 2.5 TW (million MW).

With thermal energy storage, such as was successfully demonstrated in the Solar Two experiment of the 1990s, CSP power plants are dispatchable to meet utility loads and do not require backup power of any sort, fossil or otherwise.

Oh, and solar power is not the most expensive. That "honor" goes to remote diesel generators.