Solar thermal plants are more efficient than wind farms which need about 6 times the acreage per watt produced. Still, there are hurdles to overcome.
These plants are usually in the middle of nowhere so they will need access to the grid, enough money to build transmission lines at $1 million per mile, and prove to be a reliable source of energy.
The solutions? One is viable storage which Ausra thinks they have in the kind of hot water storage tanks they propose adding to the plants. Utilities could also fill transmission lines with wind, solar, biomass, etc. to be drawn from diverse geographic regions reducing intermittency and transmission costs.
There's much more Ausra and other innovative start-ups are doing to fight global warming. Check them out at www.EarthTheSequel.com.
Lauren Guite
Environmental Defense - Lauren Guite
↧