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Solar can generate heat directly, using Concentrated Solar Power plants: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_solar_power https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Co

by ddp26 8y ago

Solar can generate heat directly, using Concentrated Solar Power plants: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_solar_power https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_solar_power

Retric 8y ago
Those are horrifically expensive relative to PV and largely abandoned tech. A core issue is you can’t concentrate sunlight on a cloudy day making them even less dependable than PV. The Ivanpah Solar Power Facility even reverts to natural gas, this is while costing 4x what PV does. PS: By abandoned the worldwide concentrating solar power installed over the last 20 years is ~1/2 the amount of PV added every month.
- jacquesm 8y ago
  Spot on. I made a whole bunch of Solar Concentrator models and did a number of calculations on them. The work was probably flawed for very precise budgeting but order of magnitude should have been correct and even then it would not work, not even close. The best I found was a moveable array of mirrors and stationary collectors but this too is fragile and a maintenance headache. Leaks of working fluid and mechanical problems would ruin the economics even if you could get the basics to work out in your favor.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- 7e 8y ago
  There are plenty of CSP projects underway. See https://solarpaces.nrel.gov/by-status https://solarpaces.nrel.gov/by-status.
  - Retric 8y ago
    The list is ~25 locations even including 14MW power plants. Like: https://solarpaces.nrel.gov/dadri-iscc-plant https://solarpaces.nrel.gov/dadri-iscc-plant but mostly it’s 50Mw. And that’s not what’s coming online this month or something they can take years to build. By comparison 95,000+ MW of PV is installed every year. And PV has a much higher capacity factor so actual MW per year is even further in PV’s favor.
- tk75x 8y ago
  It seems to still be a viable solution in countries with a high percentage of sunny days throughout the year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Morocco https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Morocco

by ddp26 8y ago

Solar can generate heat directly, using Concentrated Solar Power plants: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_solar_power https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_solar_power

Retric 8y ago

Those are horrifically expensive relative to PV and largely abandoned tech. A core issue is you can’t concentrate sunlight on a cloudy day making them even less dependable than PV. The Ivanpah Solar Power Facility even reverts to natural gas, this is while costing 4x what PV does. PS: By abandoned the worldwide concentrating solar power installed over the last 20 years is ~1/2 the amount of PV added every month.

jacquesm 8y ago
Spot on. I made a whole bunch of Solar Concentrator models and did a number of calculations on them. The work was probably flawed for very precise budgeting but order of magnitude should have been correct and even then it would not work, not even close. The best I found was a moveable array of mirrors and stationary collectors but this too is fragile and a maintenance headache. Leaks of working fluid and mechanical problems would ruin the economics even if you could get the basics to work out in your favor.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
7e 8y ago
There are plenty of CSP projects underway. See https://solarpaces.nrel.gov/by-status https://solarpaces.nrel.gov/by-status.
- Retric 8y ago
  The list is ~25 locations even including 14MW power plants. Like: https://solarpaces.nrel.gov/dadri-iscc-plant https://solarpaces.nrel.gov/dadri-iscc-plant but mostly it’s 50Mw. And that’s not what’s coming online this month or something they can take years to build. By comparison 95,000+ MW of PV is installed every year. And PV has a much higher capacity factor so actual MW per year is even further in PV’s favor.
tk75x 8y ago
It seems to still be a viable solution in countries with a high percentage of sunny days throughout the year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Morocco https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Morocco