Concentrated Solar Thermal Power

[ysabetwordsmith]

Here is a logical application of solar power that lets it work at night.

This is really just a sophisticated version of something that people use all the time in passive solar power: a heat sink.  It has a lot of potential despite the cost quibbles.  Remember that cost is only an issue when there are multiple options and enough cash moving around.  Lower those ceilings and people will use what remains possible -- and this tech, unlike batteries, doesn't require rare earths or fiddly parts.  It uses water and mirrors, which we're not going to run out of.

Comments

[siliconshaman]

Problem is, to work it kinda relies on reversing entropic decay, ie turning heat back into usable energy. Which, while possible [steam powered generators being one example] is still energetically inefficient.

The other problem is, the kind of optically efficient mirrors they need are actually quite a bit more expensive to make than PV solar panels, and by their nature are likely to remain so. [it's not the materials cost that's the problem, but the amount of labour required to make them.]

A field of pv solar panels and a honking big battery is more efficient. You're turning light into electricity directly, and storing that as electrochemical potential. That's a minimum of two energy transformation steps less.

However, the comment about rare earths is valid.. which is why organic dye photovoltaic solar cells are an interesting up & coming technology. Ditto aluminium iron-phosphate batteries. [plus, they don't go boom like lithium ones.]

[(Anonymous)]

And salt is less toxic than nuclear waste.

One of the main issues I recall about mass-scale solar is that the sun moves, but large-scale machinery cannot move to track the sun. (Household applications can be moved by hand.)

[pronker]

Now this is interesting; just yesterday, my solar power company proposed I "get a phone call describing batteries" to be put into place in my system, which has 42 panels.