Sunny Outlook: Can Sunshine Provide All U.S. Electricity?

[jpak]

http://sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=1FC8E87E-E7F2-99DF-3253ADDFDBEC8D41&chanID=sa003

In the often cloudless American Southwest, the sun pours more than eight kilowatt-hours* per square meter of its energy onto the landscape. Vast parabolic mirrors in the heart of California's Mojave Desert concentrate this solar energy to heat special oil to around 750 degrees Fahrenheit (400 degrees Celsius). This hot oil transfers its heat to water, vaporizing it, and then that steam turns a turbine to produce electricity. All told, nine such mirror fields, known as concentrating solar power plants, supply 350 megawatts of electricity yearly.

In the face of mounting concern about climate change, alternatives to coal and natural gas combustion such as these never seemed more attractive. And with the bounty of the sun waiting to be captured near fast-growing major centers of electricity consumption—Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Phoenix, among others—interest in such solar thermal technology is on the rise. The first such plant to be built in decades started providing 64 megawatts of electricity to the neon lights of Vegas this summer.

But physicist David Mills, chief scientific officer and founder of Palo Alto, Calif.–based solar-thermal company Ausra, has bigger ideas: concentrating the sun's power to provide all of the electricity needs of the U.S., including a switch to electric cars feeding off the grid. "Within 18 months, with storage, we will not only reduce cost of electricity but also satisfy the requirements for a modern society," Mills claims. "Supplying 24 hours a day and effectively replacing the function of coal or gas."

The company insists it can do this at a cost of just 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, analogous to the price of electricity from burning natural gas in California if a cost was imposed for the emission of carbon dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas (as the state's Public Utilities Commission is considering.

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[MADem]

1. Sounds good to me!!! NT

[bullimiami]

2. the amazing thing is this technology is so basic you have to wonder

why it wasnt done years ago.

[drm604]

4. The answer is pretty simple.

I realize that your question was rhetorical but I'll answer it anyway. It wasn't done years ago because it doesn't benefit the current fossil fuel industries.

[MADem]

5. They'd have trouble making a TON of money off it, and they were

too cheap to invest in the tech so long as they could make money the easy (cough, choke) way.

[drm604]

3. Nice article. K&R

If this is correct then we need to be pursuing this. A rational administration would be enthusiastically pursuing such solutions.

There's so much we could do if we could just have rational leadership. :mad:

[RufusEarl]

6. " A rational administration "

Jimmy Carter tried this back during his admin, remember he put solar panels on the WH, and as soon as Raygun took over down they came.

Ever house in this country could be fitted with solar panels, the only problem for the power companies is how do we charge people for free sunlight.

They can't and that's why it's not being pushed by this admin, same with wind energy, are any other renewable energy source. Private energy companies can't make a profit.

People that can afford and are aware of the possibilities of renewable are using them. The problem as i see it is this admin want use the bully pulpit to promote renewable energy.

Same with electric cars, any admin that wanted the vehicles on the road they would be and for a reasonable price so we could all afford them, but big oil couldn't make a profit, so we don't have them. Sucks really!

Peace!