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the damage done by building so many panels is greater than the benefits of putting those panels in the desert panels don't produce that much power, you need a

by jokoon 4y ago

the damage done by building so many panels is greater than the benefits of putting those panels in the desert panels don't produce that much power, you need a lot of them

xp84 4y ago
One of the pictures in the article shows one of those giant mirror arrays. They have one in the Eastern CA desert near Vegas. They reflect all the energy in a big circle into a single point, which when you look at it is at like, a near-sun-level of brilliance, where it (presumably) boils lots of water to run turbines or whatever. Perhaps they're going to use those instead of all the rare earth complexity that is photovoltaics.
- depereo 4y ago
  Those designs do 'eventually' use water to run turbines, but the primary thing that gets heated and has that heat harvested (to boil water) is sodium.
- zizee 4y ago
  > Perhaps they're going to use those instead of all the rare earth complexity that is photovoltaics. Photovoltaics (aka Solar panels) do not use a lot of rare earth materials. From one of the links below: > Unlike the wind power and EV sectors, the solar PV industry isn’t reliant on rare earth materials. Instead, solar cells use a range of minor metals including silicon, indium, gallium, selenium, cadmium, and tellurium. https://www.pv-magazine.com/2019/11/28/are-rare-earths-used-in-solar-panels/ https://www.pv-magazine.com/2019/11/28/are-rare-earths-used-... https://ratedpower.com/blog/rare-metals-photovoltaic/ https://ratedpower.com/blog/rare-metals-photovoltaic/
- jokoon 4y ago
  those mirror things use natural gas to start up, so not very green
- VintageCool 4y ago
  15 years ago it looked like solar thermal might be the way to go. But it turns out that, once people started manufacturing a lot of solar PV panels, they got really good at it. Solar PV costs dropped 90% in a decade. At this point, in most cases, it would probably be foolish to build a non-PV solar power plant.

by jokoon 4y ago

the damage done by building so many panels is greater than the benefits of putting those panels in the desert panels don't produce that much power, you need a lot of them

xp84 4y ago

One of the pictures in the article shows one of those giant mirror arrays. They have one in the Eastern CA desert near Vegas. They reflect all the energy in a big circle into a single point, which when you look at it is at like, a near-sun-level of brilliance, where it (presumably) boils lots of water to run turbines or whatever. Perhaps they're going to use those instead of all the rare earth complexity that is photovoltaics.

depereo 4y ago
Those designs do 'eventually' use water to run turbines, but the primary thing that gets heated and has that heat harvested (to boil water) is sodium.
zizee 4y ago
> Perhaps they're going to use those instead of all the rare earth complexity that is photovoltaics. Photovoltaics (aka Solar panels) do not use a lot of rare earth materials. From one of the links below: > Unlike the wind power and EV sectors, the solar PV industry isn’t reliant on rare earth materials. Instead, solar cells use a range of minor metals including silicon, indium, gallium, selenium, cadmium, and tellurium. https://www.pv-magazine.com/2019/11/28/are-rare-earths-used-in-solar-panels/ https://www.pv-magazine.com/2019/11/28/are-rare-earths-used-... https://ratedpower.com/blog/rare-metals-photovoltaic/ https://ratedpower.com/blog/rare-metals-photovoltaic/
jokoon 4y ago
those mirror things use natural gas to start up, so not very green
VintageCool 4y ago
15 years ago it looked like solar thermal might be the way to go. But it turns out that, once people started manufacturing a lot of solar PV panels, they got really good at it. Solar PV costs dropped 90% in a decade. At this point, in most cases, it would probably be foolish to build a non-PV solar power plant.