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World's Largest Solar Array to use Stirling Engine
An anonymous reader writes "Stirling engines are not a neglected or forgotten technology after all, according to a story at PESN. With 20 years of in-the-field fine-tuning, Stirling Energy Systems is now ready to go big -- real big. They signed a purchase agreement Tuesday with Southern California Edison (SEC), to install a 20,000 dish array that will cover 4,500 acres and will be capable of generating 500 megawatts of electricity -- more than all other U.S. solar projects combined -- making this the largest solar installation in the world. Each collector has a 37-foot-diameter array of mirrors to focus the sun's rays on the Stirling engine, which turns the heat into rotational torque for electricity generation. According to a spokesperson for SCE, this purchase will be in their commercial interest, requiring no subsidy in order to compete, implying that the efficiencies of the technology will give them an edge in the market."
While the solar panel industry would like you to believe Solar Power to be "eco friendly", unlike most "alternative energy" technologies, Solar energy is not a renewable resource. We have a limited amount of sunlight and increased use of commercial solar power would mean less to be used elsewhere, potentially creating an ecological disaster if this happened on a large enough scale. The solar industry likes to throw around statistics about how the entire U.S. could entirely move over to solar power if we created such-and-such amount of solar panels, but what they don't mention is if we did this we would completely exhaust our supply of solar energy by 2150.
Use of solar power should be avoided at all costs. Help promote renewable energy sources instead.
http://nosolar.net/
Ummmmm. Stirling is located in Arizona, right? I may have graduated public school, but I am pretty sure this is in the U.S. somewhere.... right above Maine.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
In related news, ants in a 4500 acre area have all mysteriously vanished.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
All we need now is 1.42 more of these things!
Zero Point Energy? Why Zero Point Modules are what power the lost city of Atlantis in Stargate Atlantis. They are widely recognized as on the most powerful energy sources in television science fiction.
Thalasar
The only drawback is they lose some of their stealthyness due to the giant solar reflector beaming sunlight down the periscope.
The UK would fit in my basement if I moved some stuff around. Why do you people even have cars?
(shrug) Either I can give money to Saudi Oil barons who fund the fundamentalist Wahabbi cult, or I can get irradiated by my unshielded nuclear car. It's really not THAT bad of a trade off.
Dude, that's not an energy source, that's a death ray! Tired of listening to Kim Jong Il threaten nuclear armageddon? ZZZAPPP!!!
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
"Do you even know what a moderator is?"
;-)
Many times, I've asked the same question, when reading posts on slashdot...
--- "To pee or not to pee, that is the question." ---
If people were willing to pay enough $, the panels would be flying out of the factories. But using silicon for LCD screens is a whole lot more profitable.
I blame Mad Mike(West Coast Customs) on "Pimp My Ride". He insists on putting as LCD panels as possible into old, broken down cars.
I think he once put a downward facing LCD panel in an undercarriage for one customer, so he can watch tv while working on a car.