Stimulus Watch

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[edit] General Description

Abengo is the firm that did the design; and this looks like an outline of the design. An article about these kinds of systems.

These are known as Solar-Thermal heating systems. It's solar power at it's most basic level. It uses the sun reflected off of trough-shaped mirrors to super heat a liquid for a steam generator.

[edit] Points in Favor

• Solar Thermal is a commercially available technology. It uses existing steam power generation equipment and simply replaces gas, coal and Nuclear power for making the steam.
  
• Not just a short term "job creator", this is a project that would eventually produce revenue.
• Addresses the National Security issue of "reducing the need for imported energy" in a clean and renewable fashion.

Currently about 10 cents/kWh more expensive in "upfront costs" than electricity from coal burning gas plants. Could be considered "break-even" when you consider the downstream costs of coal burning (Tons of toxic waste products, millions needed for the construction and maintenance of "smoke scrubbing" equipment, energy needed to extract and move tons of coals from the mines to the plants that burn it, the effect on area's that are stripped for coal, extreme hazards faced by those who mine the coal)

[edit] Points Against

Needs flat land and sunshine.

Less is expensive than solar PV or concentrated photovoltaic installations. It does not require specialized manufacturing equipment to create, unlike photovoltiacs. However it requires more maintenance than PV which could eventually overshadow the cost savings relative to solar PV.

(Note - According to the March 2009 issue of Scientific American, generating electricity with "Solar PV" costs 46.9 - 70.5 cents/kWh while trough based "Solar-thermal" costs 19.9 - 28.1 kWh
Although, as has been proven with so many deadly "lowest cost" products imported from China ... cost shouldn't be the sole factor in any decision.)