Concentrated Solar Power

[poliphilo]

The Guardian has an article about how we could solve the coming energy crisis by putting big, big, big solar mirrors in the North African desert. As a by-product the mirrors would produce huge amounts of desalinated water. 

Win-win. 

The technology is called CSP- Concentrated solar power.

Remember how you used to fry toy soldiers with a magnifying glass? This works on the same principle. The sun's rays are concentrated and beamed onto flasks of some special liquid that gets super hot and is used to power conventional steam turbines. 

Oh and by the way, no CO2 emissions. 

I love these sci-fi solutions. They're what the 21st century ought to be about. Really, folks, instead of killing one another over knotty points of medieval theology we should be filling the Sahara up with mirrors.

Comments

[jfs.livejournal.com]

I loved the fact that if they made it DC rather than AC they'd only lose about 10% of the energy when carrying it from Africa to the UK.

People moan about not having jet suits and meal-pills in the 21st Century - I'm perfectly happy with the wacky science that we _do_ have.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

If only we'd spend more money on the wacky science and less on the stupid stuff.

Nuclear submarimes, for instance. Who needs them?
Are we planning to sail them into the mountains of North west Pakistan to confront Osama?

[ibid.livejournal.com]

I dispair as when the Berlin wall came down we had a chance to be nice. And it seems we can't.

I bet lots of African nations would complain about solar panals in the desert even though the sand is not doing anything.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid we'll drag our feet as usual. Politicians are mortally afraid of taking these big, forward-looking decisions in case they end up looking stupid.

[jfs.livejournal.com]

There are already some stations being set up in Australia, Spain and the US. As the Guardian article pointed out, the main people likely to complain are the OPEC nations because of them losing their control over the world's energy production ... except many of them are pulling that oil from under the desert, and so are in a good position to set up CSP plants.

The great thing about CSP is that it provides power, shade for the land under the mirrors (which can be used for other purposes, like growing crops) and desalinated and cooled water (which can be used for air conditioning installations.

The article is at http://environment.guardian.co.uk/energy/story/0,,1957908,00.html - it's really inspiring.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Spain is contributing in its own small way, at least for its own benefit. All new building construction, must have solar panels as part of the standard equipment. That goes for all new houses, apartment buildings, commercial and industrial buildings etc.
A whole desert full of solar panels...what a concept! I suspect though, that *somebody* would have a gripe with that.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

In Britain we've not gone beyond the odd experimental project.

But I've noticed that they've started selling solar panels in the DIY stores.