Bob Brinker, Moneytalk and Marketimer Message Board

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Strategies & Market Trends : Bob Brinker, Moneytalk and Marketimer

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To: Elmer Phud who wrote (2090)	6/20/2008 10:28:22 PM
From: random-d#r%x	Read Replies (1) of 2121

Elmer, We aren't building mass solar farms because most people think of solar as a great way to charge the battery of your attic fan, not a way to put power onto the grid. The technology is improving rapidly. People need to catch up. You are correct. Photo-voltaic cells for large scale power are only about 10-15% efficient. However, there are a number of direct heat technologies that are 30% efficient. These use heat to generate steam or other high pressure gas to run a turbine. Examples: Solar reflector project in the Mojave Desert east of Barstow: stirlingenergy.com A different type of reflector system in Spain: solarpaces.org The 50% efficiency I quoted was based on technology that won't be realized for 10 years but even at 15%, 100 square miles of solar farms in the desert southwest would allow us to shut down most, if not all, coal power plants. Of course solar needs to be combined with nuclear because the sun only shines half the time. Also think about another aspect. If Nuclear and solar generated excess power we could use that power to extract oil from oil shale, tar sands, and coal.

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