Solar Power in the US Southwest

Many power plants burn coal or natural gas to make steam and generate electricity. But power also can come from a cleaner, more renewable source -- concentrated solar power. From sunny Las Vegas, Nevada, Shelley Schlender reports

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• southwest
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[hathawbj]

Parabolic trough plants are typically hybrid with natural gas so that after the sun sets, the steam is generated through a standard combustion process (not renewable, but still much cleaner than coal), that way the facility is being utilized at all times.

[curingaging00]

only key to sustainability to our civilization lies within renewable resources, solar wind geothermal. Politicians here in the US love to talk about how they destroy the economy. But what have they destroyed? they provided the outlines of the grand bridge off this oil addiction, they create jobs. Solar energy between 2009 and 2010, the number employed in the solar industry basically doubled from 50k to 100k here in the US. unfortunately many Americans call me a "fascist" for thinking that.

[Ecopolitidae]

CSP technologies are an attempt to squeeze dispersed solar energy into the old energy central station model that allows utilities to maintain their energy monopoly. These systems are highly inefficient, destructive and are far more expensive than distributed solar PV. Point of use solar in the VAST built environment is cheaper, faster and generates more local economic benefits while protecting our intact desert ecosystems and nation's cultural legacy.

[TrainMasterMan]

@hathawbj Yes, true, but did you hear about that new salt idea they came up with?

[LtColDaddy71]

@LtColDaddy71 part 3: We are bombarded with nuclear materials every second of every day from the universe. Not just "rays" or "beams"... ACTUAL PHYSICAL MATERIAL, much of what hits the atmosphere and burns up is radioactive. Dust in your home is radioactive, it's how they do carbon dating perhaps, or one factor. We're all being "played" over the environmental movement. It divides us, and it's MORE of a conduit to funnel wealth away from those who earn it than a real policy to protect the planet

[LtColDaddy71]

@LtColDaddy71 ...continued... and to upgrade them PAYS FOR ITSELF in fuel savings (cleaner generally means MORE EFFICIENT). I love my planet, but I want resources used to do things that make sense. Solar is great, so is wind, but with all the government interference, prices stay high (they meddle with the natural progression of markets, prices would have gone down organically on their own...) I'm actually an "off gridder", not for enviro reasons, but for independence and prepardness

[LtColDaddy71]

@weisserstrahler YOU HAVE NOTHING BUT GOOD INTENTIONS (i hope and pray) ... both the "evil" power industry and the "tree hugger" crowd are exploiting the public with this whole energy "crisis." A coal gassification style plant makes 99.9% CO2, .01% othrer harmful gases. Here is the problem, CO2 isn't harmful! We're about 15% shy of historic levels. More CO2 vents naturally into the atmosphere in 1-2 years than what man has added since we existed. Not nearly enough plants are "clean...

[weisserstrahler]

@LtColDaddy71

You have no clou, haven't you? Even if a coal plant uses cleaning techniques (most of them in the world dont), there is still more nuclear radiation coming out the smokestack than a nuclear power plant is producing.

By the way - the released CO2 is the main problem, if we put too much into the atmosphere, the equilibrium will be disturbed. Ever heard about the greenhouse effect?