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Category Archives: Solar
Solar Thermal ESOI (Energy Stored on Invested)
Barton, N. April 17, 2013. ESOI for solar thermal. http://sunoba.blogspot.com/2013/04/esoi-for-solar-thermal.html Published information is available to evaluate the ESOI score for the most common solar thermal storage technology – a molten 60-40 mixture of sodium and potassium nitrates, commonly known as … Continue reading
Posted in Concentrated Solar Power, Energy Storage
Tagged CSP, energy storage, ESOI, solar thermal
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Solar Photovoltaics (PV) limited by raw materials
This paper (excerpts below) shows that there are limits to growth — there simply aren’t enough minerals in the world that can be produced physically and/or at a reasonable cost for the many of the most common kinds of PV … Continue reading
Posted in Peak Rare Earth Elements, Photovoltaic Solar
Tagged rare earth
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Ivanpah Biggest solar power plant ever – $2.2 billion for only 100 MW
The $2.2 billion dollar Ivanpah Solar power plant generates 100 MW of power when you take the 25% capacity into account (not 400 MW). That’s enough power for 25,000 to 50,000 homes (not 140,000 as claimed). There are 116,700,000 households … Continue reading
Posted in Concentrated Solar Power
Tagged baseload, capacity, dispatchable, solar thermal
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Renewable incentives destabilize, harm electric grid
Wald, Matthew L. 7 Oct 2014. How Grid Efficiency Went South. New York times. Summary: 1) society would be better off if homeowners faced their rooftop solar panels westward, the peak time more energy is needed, but they won’t because … Continue reading
Posted in Alternative Energy, Natural Gas, Nuclear Power Energy, Photovoltaic Solar
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Wind & Solar need thousands of tons of steel, aluminum, cement, concrete, copper but produce little energy
Summary of Sergio Pacca and Darpa Horvath 2002 Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Building and Operating Electric Power Plants in the Upper Colorado River Basin ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / VOL. 36, NO. 14 pp. 3194-3200 As you can see, Wind … Continue reading
Posted in Alternative Energy, Photovoltaic Solar, Wind
Tagged alternative energy, coal, natural gas, plants, solar PV, wind
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The “Solar Revolution” is financial, not from new breakthroughs
Jeff Himmelman makes the case that the “solar revolution” is caused by new financial instruments and strategies in the New York Times August 9, 2012 article “Here Comes the Sell”: The innovation that has pushed Sungevity and the rest of … Continue reading
Posted in Solar
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Photovoltaic solar has many problems
Although sunlight is renewable, photovoltaic panels aren’t. PV isn’t ready yet. NREL (National Renewable Energy Lab) lists the technical barriers below in: PV Roadmap. U.S. Dept of Energy National Center for Photovoltaics. Lack of widespread availability of low-cost feedstock and … Continue reading
Posted in Photovoltaic Solar
Tagged solar, subsidies
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Solar 1 and 2 in the United States
Howard Hayden estimates Solar Two would need to take up 127 square miles to produce as much energy as a 1000-MWe power plant does in one year. (Solar Fraud, p. 187). According to Robert Bradley Jr, Solar One was very … Continue reading
Posted in Concentrated Solar Power
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Relax! Solar energy can save us. Krugman says so. by Ted Trainer
Ted Trainer is the author of Renewable Energy Cannot Sustain a Consumer Society and his “What to Do” can be found at The Simpler Way http://socialsciences.arts.unsw.edu.au/tsw/, in The Transition to a Sustainable and Just World, Envirobook, 2010, and the papers … Continue reading
Posted in Photovoltaic Solar
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A Huge Solar Plant Opens, Facing Doubts About Its Future
A Huge Solar Plant Opens, Facing Doubts About Its Future By DIANE CARDWELL and MATTHEW L. WALD FEB. 13, 2014. New York Times. The Ivanpah solar power plant: Cost $2.2 billion dollars to build Can energize 140,000 homes ($15,714 per … Continue reading
Posted in Concentrated Solar Power
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