Efficient Solar Power Using Stirling Engines

tscola writes "The EE Times is reporting that the U.S. Energy department believes it can make solar collectors that generate electricity at efficiency levels that rival other methods. Instead of using photovoltaics, they want to use Stirling engines to convert the heat of the sun into electricity."

Comments

Re:Land prices always kill this...

[Red Rocket]

You have to figure the cost of the real estate these items sit on, versus what other purposes the land could be used for.

In the case of other power technologies, the land use is relatively concentrated. Mines, transport routes, powerplants, refineries, etc. don't take up nearly as much space.

If the corporations profiting from fossil fuels were required to pay the real estate costs for the production of their products then solar would come out way ahead.
Hundreds of miles of streams have been burried by mountaintop removal/valley fill coal mining (no charge) -- Thousands of acres of lakes and rivers mangled by acid rain (no charge) -- Millions of acres of forests damaged by acid rain (no charge) -- Thousands of miles of streams and millions of acres of ocean polluted with mercury (no charge) -- All the air on the planet altered in compostion by CO2 exaust with unpredictable consequences (no charge)
They get away with it because we let them. We want "cheap" energy but we only get it by ignoring the real costs.