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197 comments on Concentrating On The Important Things - Solar Thermal Power

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Big Gav on April 5, 2008 - 8:56am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Thanks for the feedback.

I agree with the natural gas / biogas backup idea - I guess that is why David Mills is only aiming for 90% of the power supply :-)

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Cyril R. on April 5, 2008 - 9:53am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Thanks. They did say 100% would be possible if required, but that it would increase the cost a bit.

Now, I don't suggest it's a good idea to rely on solar thermal for 100% of electric needs, but in the hypothetical case that it does happen, it's better to use the backup heaters for this last bit as well, as much less energy would have to be dumped from the array and the occasional week or two of bad weather/sandstorms could be dealt with as well. And most of the existing infrastructure could be used, which is great.

With enough biogas in strategic reserve (use existing/depleted natural gas fields), this is one renewable energy scheme that is actually full proof at a plausibly reasonable cost. And that's rare.

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