Solar Thermal

When 2GreenEnergy was launched in 2009, the concept shown at left, “solar thermal,” held great promise. The main reason for optimism lay in its  integrated storage, i.e., molten salt, which could take on energy, raising its temperature, and then give it back, cooling off, as needed.

A friend, the late Bruce Allen, wrote a book on the subject that I helped promote.

The whole industry came to halt a few years ago when the levelized cost of energy, “LCOE,” i.e., the summation of the costs over the period of time that the system functions (the construction of the plant, operations and maintenance, the cost of fuel, and the decommissioning of the plant when its life ends)  associated with solar PV and wind came crashing down. It didn’t help solar thermal that the price of silicon dropped by 80% in just a few years.

Another factor in the demise of solar thermal was the costs of thousands upon thousands of moving parts. If you look at the system shown here, each of these mirrors is constantly moving, tracking the (apparent) motion across the sky.

Speaking of moving parts, here is a story I like to tell that concerns another friend, this one still with us.  John Perlin is a solar energy expert and author associated with UC Santa Barbara, known for his historical and future perspectives on solar power. He is the author of several books on solar energy and its history.

Among the dozens of other things he does on the campus, he conducts tours of the considerable PV arrays that one finds all over the dozens of UCSB’s parking garages.  He told me with something of a grin that the only common complaint that people have when the tour is over is “That’s it?  It just sits there?  Nothing’s moving? Aren’t we talking about energy here?  Where are the pounding pistons, the crashing waterfalls?”

He just shrugs his shoulders and thanks them for their kind attention.