| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| Jonnyboy |
Solar power stationhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6616651.stmGreat idea, I saw it on the news last night and it looked awesome. |
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| Northern_Lad |
Jo and I thought that this looked just as good. | ||
| Behemoth |
It's better in beige. | ||
| Jonnyboy |
Re: Solar power stationhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6616651.stmGreat idea, I saw it on the news last night and it looked awesome |
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| dpack |
i cant see a downside to this one (unless i was a birdy who flew into the beams , crispy pigeon snacks yummmm )
the lower intensity( heat bath water etc) ones work fine ,this looks like a good idea ,automate the gubbins to keep it going and cover the worlds deserts with them .it really is clean ,then we have plenty of energy with only a small foot print for materials and no waste legacy way forward |
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| dpack |
ps you cant arm a icbm with a thermos flask and expect anyone to stop laughing so that is a bonus as well
it would leave cloudy nations in the same position as net oil/ gas importers now ,but they often have hydrogravity ,or tidal energy available more i think about it the more i like it , does the maths work in the sense of have we enough sunny places that are not vital in some other way to supply the worlds energy needs? |
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| Northern_Lad |
Just trying to figure out what effect it would have on global temperature, ignoring the replacing of other generating systems.
If you stop the light hitting the ground, then the energy will not be stored, thus cooling the earth. However, you will be keeping the heat in the air, so that would get warmer. Air gives up its heat easier than stone, so we'd end up with hotter days and cooler nights. |
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| dougal |
There are a few downsides. Like it not working after dark. (When most home electricity is used.) And needing clear skies. And clean air. (Otherwise you spend all your time cleaning the mirrors...) And low winds (think of the force on each of the 120sq metre mirrors - and there are 1250 of them So its not a technology with immediate appeal for the UK (unless this weather becomes typical!) And then there's the question of scale. This thing has an 11Mw generating capacity. Poor old Dungeness B (local point of reference) has an 1100Mw capacity - 100 times more. So this thing, although massive in solar terms, (much more powerful than the solar furnace that has been at Font-Romeau in the Pyrenees for yonks) is a pretty tiny power station. As another point of comparison, the proposed wind farm on the Isle of Lewis is 650Mw, close to 60 times bigger in output than this Spanish solar thing. There seems little comment on the energy cost of constructing the plant - generally mirrors take a bit of making. Or the financial cost comparison with 'conventional' technologies. I note that its only expected to last 25 years. And for the blythe talk of exporting electricity between continents, IIRC grid transmission losses can be quite substantial. So forget any idea of shifting electricity half way round the world. (Weren't superconductors going to provide a power transmission breakthrough? We're still waiting.) There's a lot of clever technology being employed that I haven't found good descriptions of - like the systems both for controlling (rather than simply maximising) the heating of the boilers and matching up with the grid in such a way that clouds passing over the sun don't cause a disruption to the grid... And then there's going to be some rather interesting materials and design technology in the boiler itself... So, yes, its great - another renewable generation technology. But not one that's likely to have any impact here. The Spanish have a solar resource. We have wind, wave and tides. What a shame we aren't exploiting them better... |
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| Northern_Lad |
Really? I understood it that most power was now being used through the day to power AC units? |
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| Jonnyboy |
They have heat storage capacity for after darks loads |