Giant Star Solar Power Generation

Is the Sun winning energy-generation technology?

“There is no other energy-generation tech where you install 1m or one of the same thing depending on your application,” says Rob Carlson, a technology investor; as he puts it in a white paper, “The Sun has won”. The key to the way this demand grows is to be found in the industry’s “experience curve”.

Will cheaper-than-chips solar power increase electricity demand?

Unmet need for air conditioning alone is in the terawatts, and will only grow as the population and temperatures rise. But cheaper-than-chips solar will also stimulate innovations that increase electricity demand further everywhere. William Jevons, a 19th-century economist, pointed out that when energy gets cheaper, people use more of it.

Is concentrating solar power the future of electricity generation?

(Getty Images: John Moore) There was a time, not long ago, when the future of electricity generation looked something like the opening scene of Blade Runner 2049, with endless arrays of mirrors in concentric circles. Concentrated solar power (CSP) uses mirrors to focus heat from the Sun to drive a steam turbine and generate electricity.

What does a concentrating solar power plant look like?

Deep in the Nevada desert, halfway between Las Vegas and Reno, a lone white tower stands 195 meters tall, gleaming like a beacon. It is surrounded by more than 10,000 billboard-size mirrors focusing the sun’s rays on its tip. The Crescent Dunes “ concentrating solar power” plant looks like some advanced communication device for aliens.

Is concentrated solar power making a comeback?

Concentrated solar power is an old technology making a comeback. Here's how it works The 100MW Cerro Dominador CSP plant in the Atacama Desert, Chile. (Getty Images: John Moore)

Could large solar farms in the Sahara Desert redistribute solar power?

Large solar farms in the Sahara Desert could redistribute solar power generation potential locally as well as globally through disturbance of large-scale atmospheric teleconnections, according to simulations with an Earth system model.