Comments on: How Does Integrated Solar Work?

By: Breath on the Wind

Breath on the Wind — Sun, 07 Jul 2013 17:34:00 +0000

“Let’s start with the tower. There are a bunch of different technologies
that come under the umbrella of solar thermal, or concentrated solar
power. These include compact linear Fresnel reflectors, and parabolic
troughs.”

This is poorly worded and a bit confusing. The “tower” has nothing to do with fresnel reflectors and parabolic troughs. Later heliostats are described as working in two directions, however heliostats for parabolic troughs only need to work in one direction due to site orientation and the nature of troughs. An interesting article but the quality could have been better.

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Sun, 07 Jul 2013 08:04:00 +0000

I don’t really get how people can criticize Germany. Germany has been a leader in cutting greenhouse gas emissions. If it decides to shut down nuclear power in order to avoid a disaster in its front yard, i think it has every right to… at least until others catch up with its climate leadership.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Sun, 07 Jul 2013 04:07:00 +0000

Germany is going through a temporary increase in coal use.

I think we should respect the feelings of German citizens who decided that they no longer want to live with the risk of a nuclear meltdown. And since Germany is so far ahead of most of the rest of the world in installing renewables and implementing efficiency measures, I think they have earned a bit of latitude.

By: Jared Conner

Jared Conner — Sun, 07 Jul 2013 04:04:00 +0000

Although, CSP does have a huge potential for replacing fossil fuels in industry for heat production. Have you seen this video on Youtube?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svAPyyUJUCo And you could even sequester carbon with concentrated sunlight by using it to do pyrolysis of organic matter, and capturing the compounds off-gassed, to keep it carbon negative.

By: Others

Others — Sun, 07 Jul 2013 03:30:00 +0000

For those who celebrated Germany’s Solar Power Increase, please read the other side of it

http://www.eia.gov/cfapps/ipdbproject/IEDIndex3.cfm?tid=1&pid=7&aid=1

Germany increased the Coal consumption, why shut down nuclear power plants and consume more Coal. They can build more Solar and Wind Plant, but not shut down the nuclear power.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Sat, 06 Jul 2013 18:54:00 +0000

The “salt” is basically fertilizer, IIRC. A spill wouldn’t be an environmental disaster.

The plumbing is done with corrosion-resistant materials.

At least one system has heating coils attached to the plumbing so that the system can be warmed back up if necessary.
—

I’m not convinced that it’s time to start building CSP on a grand scale. Let’s see how this generation works and what the costs actually are.

By: Ivor O'Connor

Ivor O'Connor — Sat, 06 Jul 2013 18:30:00 +0000

All this pumping of molten salt seems error prone. I’d much rather they over engineer the CSP so http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermosiphon can be passively used. I wouldn’t want a pump or controlling circuitry or an earthquake to be responsible for a phase transition somewhere that brings the whole system to a halt.

What are the recovery steps needed after a failure when the molten salt is now frozen salt? Will the solid salt destroy the pipes? If not has the heating mechanism to change the solid salt back into molten salt already been installed? Have these steps been tested? Will they be tested on a regular basis?

It seems like the people that have designed passive fail safe nuclear power plants could be employed in the construction of passive CSP plants…

We need robust CSP and we need it now!