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Politics : Rat's Nest - Chronicles of Collapse -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (7687)	5/20/2008 10:38:25 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24213

Solar Islands: A new concept for low-cost solar energy at very large scale Posted by Francois Cellier on May 20, 2008 - 9:16am in The Oil Drum: Europe This is a guest post by Dr. Thomas Hinderling. Dr. Hinderling is the CEO of CSEM Centre Suisse d'Electronique et de Microtechnique SA. One of CSEM's most exciting projects concerns the design of a new class of large scale concentrating solar power systems, called Solar Islands 1. This article introduces the solar island design to the readers of TOD 2. Introduction – the Problem During the next decades, the generation of sustainable energy will become one of the main challenges of our civilization. Worldwide energy demand is expected to grow from about 10 GTep (1010 Tep [Ton Equivalent Petrol], or 5*1019 Joule) in the beginning of the century to 15-20 GTep by 2050. Some scenarios predict even levels as high as 40 GTep. An analysis of future global petrochemical consumption needs (i.e. energy needs and/or raw material for chemical industry) implies that early petrol shortages might already appear in the mid of the century. The need for large scale renewable energy sources is underlined by the global warming due to increasing CO2 levels. CO2 is an unavoidable by-product of the energy generation process using any kind of fossil fuel. There's more… (3218 words) europe.theoildrum.com