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301 comments on Dr Deffeyes defines a date

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AlanfromBigEasy on February 16, 2006 - 9:56pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I see difficulties in the economics of scaling down to "7-11 size" and anything less than "Regional Shopping Mall" size.

Rooftops are NOT so cheap.  Additional structure to support solar load (weight).  Elevating them above parking lot has some additional costs as well (like elevating above river bed).

Also, great care must be taken to not break the watertightness of a roof, and any reroofing has to be done under/around solar collectors and their supports.

Still, I good see a 200 acre array mounted over some of the parking lots in Phoenix.  Concrete around each post to prevent accident knocking down pole and spilling 750 C oil everywhere !  Capital cost of lost parking spaces due to poles & guards is a high value loss and probably kills idea unless parking becomes "surplus".

Perhaps 0.5% of Phoenix load that way.

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Engineer-Poet on February 17, 2006 - 3:31pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
The tech to do a 7-11 size unit is already in the California desert; it's the 37-foot diameter solar Stirling dishes.  They require a post to mount them, but you could incorporate that into a corner of the building and make it do double duty.

It might be cheaper to do it with heliostats feeding a fixed collector.  If so, the result would not look all that much different from a filling station with roofed pump islands.

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301 comments on Dr Deffeyes defines a date

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