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For current price points, solar thermal power is just not economical. Cheaper to throw in a bunch of panels and replace them after they are scratched by the sa

For current price points, solar thermal power is just not economical. Cheaper to throw in a bunch of panels and replace them after they are scratched by the sand, that to build expensive panels. Automation can be the solution for solar farms in the deserts. Daily automated cleaning, compressed air hosing, etc can be built into the project.

dragontamer 6y ago
> Cheaper to throw in a bunch of panels and replace them after they are scratched by the sand, that to build expensive panels. Its cheaper to replace a mirror than to replace a PV panel. The main benefit to solar-thermal is that they're innately offset from the sun by a few hours. In the morning, it takes a few hours to heat up, and then after the sun sets, it takes a few hours to cool down. During that offset period, the plant continues to generate power. Generating power at 9pm from thermal-residue (at the cost of losing 9am performance) is an acceptable tradeoff, especially when you consider that thermal plants work as a "team" with normal PV panels. Normal PV panels cannot give 9pm or 10pm power, not without an expensive battery bank (which suddenly makes thermal solar towers cost effective). ---------- Moving forward: the problem isn't going to be megawatts... its going to be megawatts AT THE APPROPRIATE TIME. That 7pm to 12pm power is currently served by Natural Gas peaker plants, and will continue to be served by peaker plants for the foreseeable future. After that point, the wind picks up and Wind Energy + Baseload (aka: Nuclear) takes over for the rest of the night. I know there's a group who believe that solar + batteries can solve the 7pm to 12pm power problem. But I believe that specifically discovering generators for that timeframe (ex: thermal solar towers) would be a superior option compared to giant battery banks.

dragontamer 6y ago

> Cheaper to throw in a bunch of panels and replace them after they are scratched by the sand, that to build expensive panels. Its cheaper to replace a mirror than to replace a PV panel. The main benefit to solar-thermal is that they're innately offset from the sun by a few hours. In the morning, it takes a few hours to heat up, and then after the sun sets, it takes a few hours to cool down. During that offset period, the plant continues to generate power. Generating power at 9pm from thermal-residue (at the cost of losing 9am performance) is an acceptable tradeoff, especially when you consider that thermal plants work as a "team" with normal PV panels. Normal PV panels cannot give 9pm or 10pm power, not without an expensive battery bank (which suddenly makes thermal solar towers cost effective). ---------- Moving forward: the problem isn't going to be megawatts... its going to be megawatts AT THE APPROPRIATE TIME. That 7pm to 12pm power is currently served by Natural Gas peaker plants, and will continue to be served by peaker plants for the foreseeable future. After that point, the wind picks up and Wind Energy + Baseload (aka: Nuclear) takes over for the rest of the night. I know there's a group who believe that solar + batteries can solve the 7pm to 12pm power problem. But I believe that specifically discovering generators for that timeframe (ex: thermal solar towers) would be a superior option compared to giant battery banks.