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Molten Salt-Based Solar Power Plant
rcastro0 writes "Hamilton Sundstrand, a division of United Technologies, announced today that it will start to commercialize a new type of solar power plant. A new company called SolarReserve will be created to provide heat-resistant pumps and other equipment, as well as the expertise in handling and storing salt that has been heated to more than 1,050 degrees Fahrenheit. According to venture capitalist Vinod Khosla 'Three percent of the land area of Morocco could support all of the electricity for Western Europe.' Molten Salt storage is already used in Nevada's Solar One power plant. Is this the post-hydrocarbon world finally knocking?"
Let's do the math, folks.
Presuming you want to melt salt, you probably need a whole lot of mirrors. Compute the cost of a square meter of mirror, one that will last for twenty years. Now add the cost of a mirror support, one that will keep it aimed at the collector. The sun moves, so you'll need a aiming device. Estimate the cost of an aiming device that can last for say twenty years and survive typical weather conditions over twenty years. Don't forget wind gusts!
I suspect you'll have trouble getting the cost down to an economical level. By about a factor of thirty. Even assuming economies of scale. Good luck selling your idea to the bankers.
I got in trouble for that in grade 5 when I pointed out that the sun would eventually die out.
Such an asinine comment is forgivable for someone in 5th grade, that you still seem proud of it (you are presumably already 15), is not.
I replied with "So are oil and gas renewable resources if they aren't depleted before we die?".
By "we" I presume you mean the human race?
The teacher put on my report card " ... seems to have trouble distinguishing between renewable and non-renewable resources."
Accurate, but somewhat more polite than I would have been.