Thermal solar power

A method of generating electricity from solar towers where mirrors are used to reflect the sun to a central point and using the heat produced to generate steam for an electric generator.

The difference being, all the mirrors are individually controlled by cheap micropricessors to create the perfect parabolic concentrator for the power tower.
http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2665

Description

Bill Gross, chairman of eSolar and founder of Idealab, discusses how Moore's Law provides a new weapon in the fight to make solar energy technologies more productive and cost-competitive. After examining current solar energy harnessing techniques, Gross focused his attention on applying Moore's Law to high-efficiency solar conversion systems. eSolar was founded to work on the development of these ideas. In this clip, Gross describes the technology behind eSolar's current solutions

This idea, I believe could actually work, even in Ireland as it will also generate heat on a cloudy day and if the steam is stored could generate a small amount of electricity at night. A good companion of wind.

TheInquisitor

Its already being done in spain on a huge scale hundreds of solar panels heating water in a tower creating steam etc etc . I assume all he's doing is making it accessible to the average person as opposed to large power companies

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6616651.stm

Capt'n Midnight

Deleted User wrote: »

This idea, I believe could actually work, even in Ireland as it will also generate heat on a cloudy day and if the steam is stored could generate a small amount of electricity at night. A good companion of wind.

have you checked the met office records for sunshine ?


http://www.met.ie/climate-ireland/sunshine.asp?prn=1

Mean daily duration of bright sunshine (hours)

....
Irish skies are completely covered by cloud for well over fifty percent of the time.

We just can't compete with Spain or Morocco, interconnectors might be the way though


Or we could do what we are good at, using solar power in the form of biomass, coppiced willow. Nowhere near as efficient as silicon, but vastly cheaper.

[edit - also solar power varies considerably over different years]

http://www.met.ie/climate/sunshine.asp

1887 was the sunniest summer in the 100 years from 1881 to 1980, according to measurements made at the Phoenix Park in Dublin. A more recent summer, 1980, was the dullest. The difference was considerable, with the summer of 1887 being twice as sunny as that of 1980.

One of the features of a system like this is the fact that can concentrate even fairly feeble amounts of solar into useful amounts of heat for steam generation.

Whether it could ever produce sufficient energy ever to be economically viable is another matter.

Capt'n Midnight

check out molten salt for heat storage

but you would need unreal insulation

quentingargan

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

check out molten salt for heat storage

but you would need unreal insulation

I think that is what they use in Spain in the solar thermal power plants there.

The industry claims that in Spain / Morocco this could become price comparable to fossil fuel produced electricity, but with 50% of the light intensity in Ireland that would mean it woudl be worse than twice the price. Wind, by comparison is cheaper than gas in Ireland (but without the built in storage that solar thermal provides).

As you say, lets do what we're good at. Biomass is probably the correct backup for wind in Ireland, including biodigesters to supply gas from grass..

edwinkane

Deleted User wrote: »

Whether it could ever produce sufficient energy ever to be economically viable is another matter.

Thats often the fly in the ointment for so many alternative energy schemes, that the business plan is flawed for one reason or another. Very often either the supply will be erratic and therefore not dependable, or the costs just don't make any economic sense.

recedite

Good news for the arabs; when their oil runs out they will have a handy way to generate electricity.

recedite

recedite wrote: »

Good news for the arabs; when their oil runs out they will have a handy way to generate electricity.

They're quite likely to bring solar online much quicker, to manitain the revenue form oil rather than using it all up themselves, they'll need money for food.

The deserts aren't very good for growing crops.

bonkey

Deleted User wrote: »

This idea, I believe could actually work,

The idea does work.

Its kinda funny that a google on "eSolar Moore's Law" will produce a chunk of recent hits (w. video of this talk) and then an article dated from 2009 when the idea was actually relatively new.

Since then eSolar have installed several plants, and signed several large deals....

even in Ireland as it will also generate heat on a cloudy day and if the steam is stored could generate a small amount of electricity at night.

eSolar's clients and future clients are all in sunny places (e.g. California, India). The company lists their site as 250 acres (100 hectares) for a 46MW plant. This makes it suitable for sunny places which have large areas of usable space (e.g. ideal for desert or arid areas).

Ireland isn't such a sunny place, so 250 acres would buy us significantly less then 46MW. If it was in-and-around 50% yield, we'd need approx 10 acres per MW. That's quite a bit of acreage.

WeeBushy

I saw one of these just outside Seville while on a college field trip recently, and they are a sight to behold. Huge beams of light going up into the sky, they look like something out of the future.

However, the director of conservation at Donana National Park (about an hour south of Seville) is not impressed with them at all, as they are a big problem for migrating birds. A huge number of birds fly from the northern hemisphere through this region to get to Europe. The light that is focussed from these literally fry any bird that flies into their path.

It's a problem for the biodiversity of the area, and as a result much of the rest of Europe, as there are quite a number of endangered and critically endangered species of bird that rely on the area.

Not dissing them as such, we do need to explore sustainable sources of energy, but its worth noting the affect that they have on our biodiversity.