Tuesday, April 15, 2008

"Heat Is Much Easier to Store than Electricity": Dreaming of a Low-carbon Economy

You must read this article if it's the only thing you do this year! It gives the reader a little bit of everything (science, history, economics, politics, etc.) with respect to solar electric thermal or concentrated solar power (CSP). I've written about this with respect to Abengoa Solar's CSP plant in the Arizona desert, here and here. Basically, there are a bunch of mirrors in a sunny place concentrating the solar rays on a tube of liquid. This liquid boils, turns into steam, and then rotates a turbine, which produces an electric current. Pretty simple eh?

From the article, one line in particular caught my eye:

"Heat is much easier to store than electricity, a fact that gives CSP a crucial -- maybe the crucial -- advantage over wind and solar photovoltaics."

That is critical. In order to take advantage of the electricity from wind and photovoltaics at night we would have to store it in batteries, which is expensive. Storing the heat generated from the CSP plant is easier and cheaper to do than storing electricity.

So whadda ya' says folks? Concentrated solar power plants all over the southwest? It'll be cheaper and quicker than building a nuclear plant. It's a no-brainer to me.

No comments:

Wishful Thinking

*Before adding PV, wind, or solar thermal to your residential or commercial structure, the first step is to analyze this structure's energy consumption through a professional energy audit. I'd like to see some public education on the importance of an energy audit for any structure. Remember Smokey the Bear's forest fire shtick drilled into our heads over the last few decades? How about something like, "Henry the House" desperately wanting to know how much energy he consumes and wastes throughout the day?

*With over 300 sunny days a year on the Front Range is it too much to ask for solar PV and thermal modules on every residential and commercial unit (after an energy audit of course)?


*How about affordable plug-in electric cars that go more than 100 miles on a charge with PV and wind powered recharging stations?

*Dreaming of companies large and small adopting business sustainability practices to maximize profits, reduce their carbon footprint, and enhance the lives of their employees and the communities that surround them.

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