Harnessing Clean Water from Power Plant Emissions

[NNadir]

6. Thank you for your kind words. I do read a lot of "solar thermal" papers, but I have to tell...

...you that the environmental and financial disaster at Ivanpah proved once and for all - for me at least - that solar concentrators are as useless as the rest of the renewable fantasy.

Basically that plant is nothing more than a small and very, very, very, very expensive gas plant with a solar assist that is a disgrace to land use.

That's the word to use for it, "disaster." It did not work; it isn't working; and it won't work.

The reason I am drawn to reading solar thermal papers is not because of my interest in the solar portions, but many of these papers explore high temperature materials and processes, and thus are readily adapted to cleaner and more sustainable operations, to wit, nuclear operations.

A number of high temperature reactors have successfully operated, mostly in Britain, but if we are going to get serious about addressing climate change, we are going to need to go to even higher temperatures, and the scientific papers describing solar thermal schemes are often useful in this regard. Thus far, high temperature reactors have mostly been exploited for the limited goal of generating electricity, but if our species is going to survive with any semblance of decency, they must do much more than simply provide electrical power.

I appreciate that much of the basic research with respect to solar energy and renewable energy in general is useful, even if the commercial attempts to make this stuff sustainable, productive and environmentally acceptable has failed dramatically, even if it's still not popular among the masses to recognize this undeniable fact.