The technology that will save humanity (Concentrated solar power)

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/04/14/solar_electric_thermal/

The technology that will save humanity

The solar energy you haven't heard of is the one best suited to generate clean electricity for generations to come.

By Joseph Romm

April 14, 2008 | One of oldest forms of energy used by humans -- sunlight concentrated by mirrors -- is poised to make an astonishing comeback. I believe it will be the most important form of carbon-free power in the 21st century. That's because it's the only form of clean electricity that can meet all the demanding requirements of this century.

Certainly we will need many different technologies to stop global warming. They include electric cars and plug-in hybrids, wind turbines and solar photovoltaics, which use sunlight to make electricity from solid-state materials like silicon semiconductors. Yet after speaking with energy experts and seeing countless presentations on all forms of clean power, I believe the one technology closest to being a silver bullet for global warming is the other solar power: solar thermal electric, which concentrates the sun's rays to heat a fluid that drives an electric generator. It is the best source of clean energy to replace coal and sustain economic development. I bet that it will deliver more power every year this century than coal with carbon capture and storage -- for much less money and with far less environmental damage.

Clearly, the world needs a massive amount of carbon-free electricity by 2050 to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions. The industrialized countries need to cut their carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation by more than 80 percent in four decades. Developing countries need to find a way to raise living standards without increasing electricity emissions in the short term, and then reduce those emissions sharply. And, over the next few decades, the world needs to switch to a ground transportation system whose primary fuel is clean electricity.

This electricity must meet a number of important criteria. It must be affordable: New electricity generation should cost at most about 10 cents per kilowatt hour, a price that would probably beat nuclear power and would certainly beat coal with carbon capture and storage, if the latter even proves practical on a large scale. The electricity cannot be intermittent and hard to store, as is energy from wind power and solar photovoltaics. We need power that either stays constant day and night or, even better, matches electricity demand, which typically rises in the morning, peaks in the late afternoon, and lasts late into the evening.

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[NNadir]

1. Bullshit. They were thinking wishfully about this 20 years ago and building plants

Plants were built.

The company that built them went bankrupt.

The plants still run, except for the one that exploded in a therminol fire, but everyone who invested in them lost all their money.

There were lots of people - I was one of them - who said this technology would save the world.

It didn't.

It didn't even come close. Fifty years of such talk has not produced a single exajoule.

As for saving the world, there is NOT ONE anti-nuke who understands that the world is no longer available to be saved,

There is NOT ONE fundie anti-nuke who knows anything about history.

There is NOT ONE fundie anti-nuke who will stop opposing the world's largest, by far, form of climate change gas free energy. Fifty years of such stupidity has made the atmosphere irretrievable.

[diane in sf]

2. Bullshit yourself. They're building one now in S. Cal that will provide 24 hour power.

[DLnyc]

3. Very well-written, fact-based, non-hype and informative article.

The amount of energy falling on our deserts in the form of sunlight far outstrips our entire energy usage. The numbers are much better than most people imagine. And the proof is in the pudding--large scale solar plants are being built all over the place.

Advantages--no fuel cost, relatively low (compared to nuclear) capital costs, essentially carbon free.

Disadvantage--Uncle Dick's favorite companies will have a bad year or two, while they adjust to the new system.

It would be great if some people would read the (reality-based) article, before saying in cannot happen.