Kick Back and Relax in the Cheers! Forum. Thoughts on life or want advice or thoughts from other pca members. Or just plain "chill". Originator of da Babe threads.
It’s a victim, ironically, of the solar industry’s success over the past decade. The steam generators at Crescent Dunes require custom parts and a staff of dozens to keep things humming and to conduct regular maintenance. By the time the plant opened in 2015, the increased efficiency of cheap solar panels had already surpassed its technology, and today it’s obsolete—the latest panels can pump out power at a fraction of the cost for decades with just an occasional hosing-down.
When they designed and built that thing, solar panels were incredibly inefficient and expensive and it was seen as a more cost effective alternative. Now solar panels are cheap and very efficient.
The original idea is brilliant: use a bunch of mirrors to focus an intense beam on a furnace to heat molten salt that is circulated through a heat exchanger to generate steam and run turbines.
Trouble is that salt is corrosive, and that meant there were some engineering challenges to overcome. It would be nice if someone came up with a different material to heat up that wasn't so corrosive and hard to maintain.
Or maybe all they need is the Solex from James Bond's The Man With the Golden Gun
Christians warn us about the anti-christ for 2,000 years, and when he shows up, they buy a bible from him.
