One of the big questions about solar power is how to supply sun-driven electricity at times of peak demand. Demand spikes in the early morning, before the sun is high enough to hit solar panels, and in the early evening, when solar panels operate at only at half efficiency in the low light. Cost-effective storage has been a major issue to be solved.
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molten salt
Here’s a good article on a recently completed solar thermal tower (aka concentrated solar power or CSP) in the desert between Las Vegas and Reno, NV.
The thing to like about solar thermal, as we’ve often discussed here, is that it affords us a fairly low-cost way of storing energy and delivering it when the sun
One of the greatest problems of large scale solar power facilities is that they do not produce electricity at night, and when they do produce power, it is constantly fluctuating with the sun’s strength. Under development in the deserts of Tonopah, Nevada is a new technology that will effectively store solar energy
The Challenge Facing Concentrated Solar Power — Utilities Want Mature Technology
written by 2GreenEnergy
A reader points out that in talking about utility scale solar, only mature technologies are used — usually 20 to 30 years mature or more. He observes how long it’s taken PV to be seriously considered for plants over 10mW. But he goes on to talk about the Stirling Dish System, noticing that the system holds the efficiency world record for sun to grid electricity at 31.5%, and has