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Pictured below is one of three light collection towers at a solar farm on I-15 near the California -Nevada border. The tower sits in the middle of a sea of mirrors, which reflect the sun's rays up from the ground to the top of the tower. Temperatures at the tower top can reach 1100° F. The heat is absorbed by molten salt that circulates between the top of the tower and a heat exchanger on the ground. In the heat exchanger, thermal energy is transferred from the molten salt to water, which boils, producing steam. The steam pressure is then used to turn a turbine, which is connected to a traditional electric generator. The plant generates about 650 GWh of energy per year (equivalent to 1.3 million horsepower), enough to power 750,000 homes. This plant covers only a tiny fraction of the Mohave Desert floor. There is plenty of room for more plants like this one. In addition to powering homes and businesses, this "green" energy can be used to make clean and inexpensive hydrogen fuel for cars and trucks, or to run reverse osmosis plants, which can make fresh water from salt water. This is the future. 😎

Flyingsaucesir 8 May 1
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We are using renewables all wrong. Should be used to power dwellings not sustain a grid. The only advantage of a grid is arseholes can monopolise it and have power over others. Industrial power.......let industry pay for it.
We can easily have households/ apartment blocks etc power themselves. Crazy we don't but some would lose a lot of influence if that happened, which is why it's not happening.

puff Level 8 May 1, 2022

It's all about capital, my son. Thems that got it use it to make more of it. But at this late date, we don't have the luxury to muck about with a long and bumpy transition. We need to create a whole new infrastructure toot sweet.

But I do agree that, at least in certain cases, powering domiciles individually is better that powering a grid. First, you eliminate transmission lines (which are not only expensive to build and maintain, but also "leak" energy. Second, a distributed system is more resilient to both natural disasters and hacking by bad actors. If it were allowed, I would get my house off the grid. But, unfortunately, that is not allowed.

@Flyingsaucesir defense wise good too. No major power generating targets to take everything out.........like gas pipelines

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A long time ago on an inventors program, saw a guy who made a cylinder made of prisms which concentrated all light to the centre where there was a black hose filled with oil. He claimed that a 3 meter length of this could super heat the oil, then same idea eg run oil tube through water, boil to make steam, run turbine. Spent half a day looking for that episode, nope'

Has always cracked me up that we haven't evolved past the steam engine ie burn gas/ Coal/ hydrocarbons to boil water and make steam. Use nuclear to boil water make steam. Using solar here to boil water make steam.

puff Level 8 May 1, 2022

Yeah I wonder if Jerónimo de Ayanz y Beaumont really knew what great legs his invention would turn out to have. 😂

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I think it is fantastic technology. I wish it had been started a long time ago. I am fearful that it is too late.

It is certainly late, but maybe not too late. In any case, looking back will not help us. We must go forward.

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Only during daytime and good weather. That's why we have diverse methods of storing & creating electricity such as wind, tidal, hydro, etc.

One good way to store energy during the day is to use solar energy to perform electrolysis. Electrolysis literally means splitting with electricity. In this case, splitting water molecules. When you split water, you get hydrogen and oxygen gases. The oxygen can be released to the atmosphere, while the hydrogen can be stored in tanks. Tanked hydrogen can be shipped anywhere it is needed, including thousands of filling stations for light and heavy electric vehicles equipped with fuel cells. You can also power a home or business with a hydrogen fuel cell. Hydrogen has several advantages over lithium batteries. Hydrogen is much more abundant than lithium, and is much lighter. And lithium batteries eventually wear out. The technology for recycling old lithium batteries has yet to be perfected. With hydrogen, recycling is not an issue. As it passes through a fuel cell, hydrogen combines with oxygen to form water. It's pure, clean water that comes out of the tailpipe. No more smog. No more gas tax! 😀

@Flyingsaucesir Won't that make the road really wet/icy in the winter?

@MyTVC15 Only at temperatures below freezing. And actually most of the water will come out as water vapor, in which case it would not wet the ground. Where ice is a problem, we can deal with it the way we already do, by salting the road.

@Flyingsaucesir Since I live in New Hampshire, ice is a reality for a good part of the year. Not knocking the technology though.

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