Solar Power - Blog Posts
Occam’s Razor:
Suggests that the simplest explanation,
Is the most plausible one.
Which means, to put it simply, I love you.
But how do I contain the multitude of all that I feel
Within so little?
How do I tell you,
I see the stars in you;
All my poems from here on until eternity
Will be about you;
“I love you” doesn’t do justice to the fact that
I swear I was a Universe unlike any other,
But I found you and we were always whole;
But somehow, with you next to me, we feel complete.
In my next life time, I swear I will find Occam; tell him
That there are some entities which need to be multiplied;
Not out of necessity,
But out of love.
by Anika
Nikolas Perrault shares why it is crucial that proper storage solutions are developed for renewable energy.
Some Solar_Power Satellites of The Future might be Solar_Powered Blimps that float around in The Stratosphere.
Solar-Powered Blimps Are the New Satellites
The arduous path of the development in the energy sector of Colombia by 2050.
Last year, Colombia attained economic stability in spite of the Great recession (2008-USA), Spanish property bubble (2008-2014 Spain), the Brexit ( 2016-UK) and other stock market crashes during the last decade. The economic growth was 3.1% and Colombia was Latin America’s 4th largest economy and the world’s 43st largest by 2015 (Banco mundial, 2015).However, a lot of Colombians could say that food, service publics, health, transportation and the cost of real state are more expensive now. In addition, its development industry has been slowly compared to BRICS and ADV economies. The economists always consider two possible sceneries: the BAU scenario and sustainable scenario by 2050. But are applicable to Colombia these points of view? To analyze the real situation in Colombia is important to know its history and its industrial evolution. I think that the way is no easy for Colombia but personally I believe that for the next 34 years Colombia can improve its devolvement and become in an emerging market, specifically in the power sector and the development of non-conventional renewable energies (NCRE) such as Biomass power, Wind Power Generation, Ocean thermal Energy, Solar Power Generation and Geothermal Power Generation[dr2] . In the next lines, I will argue the reasons why I believe in the present potential in Colombia that will allow the economic growth. It is important to explain that this is only feasible if Colombia achieve some requirements[dr3] that I will describe below.
Step by step the private sector is begging to evaluate the possibility to change the conventional sources of energy for NCRE. Therefore, if the private sector in Colombia invest in the development of renewable energies such as sunlight, wind, geothermal heat and biomass, Colombia will be able to supply the energy need, mainly in non-interconected zones where the current situation is very depressing. The poverty, the limit access to health services, the lack of road infrastructure and lower levels of education and employs are adding to the poor or lack of energy services in rural zones of Colombia. The current situation in the country indicates that is necessary to search other alternatives to generate energy in the country because the energy demand in the country is 190 GWh and hydro-electric only supply 105 GWh, and according with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) the demand will grow approximately 80% for Latin-America in 2040. For these reason the renewable energy has become in megatrend around the world and has grown 18% since 2015 (Dinero, 2016)
Recently, the BID announced that it would give a loan of US$9.265 million to improve the private investment in renewable energy for non-interconected zones and isolated location in Colombia. Big companies like Cementos Argos, Cemex and Cartón de Colombia have chosen electricity generation and cogeneration with alternative energies (renewables and not-renewables). Additionally, there are some educational institutions, non-profit foundations and small and medium-sized enterprises that promote the use of non-conventional energies in Colombia. For example, the SENA with the alliance of the Sunset Solar which installed two photovoltaic plants, one in the center of Electricity, Electronic and Telecommunications (Ceet), in Bogotá and the other in the Regional Center in Puerto Carreño (Vichada). Other companies that have invested on renewal energy are: EnergreenCol, Funcener and Celsia.
In the fifth edition, the 2015 World Energy Trilemma Index, Colombia took up the 18 position on a classification AAB, being the second better country in Latin America after of Uruguay (Wordl Energy Council, 2015). Colombia has a legislation for the generation, interconnection, transmission, distribution and commercialization of electricity in all territory. But, the law 1715 of 2014 is the only Renewable Energy Sources law in the country. This law has as target to improve the devolvement and to make better use of non-conventional energy sources, mainly the ones that are renewable. With this law, the government aims to increase the coverage in non-interconnected zones in the country, to reduce the greenhouse gases and to guarantee electric service for vulnerable populations. To achieve this goal, Colombia is also offering tax incentives for companies that develop these type of projects. In the situation in which energy in excess is produced, the producer would sell energy to the national system.
Last year, the Mining and Energy Planning Unit of Colombia (UPME) showed a preview about tasks for evaluating the possibilities and challenges to incorporate renewable energies into the existing energy infrastructure of the country. Colombia depends on Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for development, analysis and promote of the introduction of non-conventional renewable energies (NCRE). In addition, Colombia has promised to accomplish with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s). In which countries ensure the access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy to all the population.
All commitments presented above demonstrate the interest of Colombia to take the leap to a new energy revolution. However, the corruption of the political elite is an impediment on the achievement these goals. For this reason, if Colombia wants to emerge in the power sector it must toughen the laws and penalize the corruption. In the recent energy crisis, during El Niño, the Government of Colombia launched the awareness campaign “Apagar, paga” in order to prevent a power outage in the country, fortunately this never occurred. Nevertheless, el niño was not the only reason for the energy crisis.
All Colombians pay an extra fee for the price of electricity (reliability charges). These is a mechanism implemented since 2005 to encourage existing generator or new investors to increase the capacity in the wholesale energy market. In addition, this mechanism allows more stability despite the El niño or La niña phenomenon, the reservoir level or some regulation measures. Colombians should not worry about a power outage. But, due to corruption this is not reality. Some examples of corruption involve to: Electricaribe, Isagen, Enerpereira and National Hydrocarbons Agency. These cases of corruption endanger the public and social infrastructure and delay the energy devolvement. Thus, how can Colombia leave aside the corruption? It is a process very long but Colombia has the support of the National Anti-Corruption Observatory and the Office of the Inspector General (Procuradoria General de Colombia) which in the last years have penalized 11.330 cases of corruption (Corporación Excelencia en la Justicia, 2011).
Like all new technology, it is necessary to research NCRE to be able to achive the energy demand of Colombia. The country has had an increasing interest in studying the potential here for new energies sources and in evaluating how could cost to introduce these technologies in different regions of the country. All studies are used to decide which is the best option. Some studies show that while the cost of wind and photovoltaic energy has decreased in recent years, their decrease has not yet facilitated their adoption in Colombia, but several steps have been taken that could influence the future adoption of renewable energy making them more attractive as new technology.
Now, the main question is : Does Colombia have enough raw material for a sustainable development based in the use of the non-conventional energy sources? And the answer is yes, of course. It has five main sources that we have studied thoroughly during the last years: Biomass power, Wind Power Generation, Ocean thermal Energy, Solar Power Generation and Geothermal Power Generation.
Similarly, to other developing countries, Colombia has an obvious interest on biomass because biomass is the second largest renewable energy resource after Hydro. In 2009, according to UPME biomass contributed to 67% of renewable generated electricity, to 4.2% of the energy supply in the transport sector and to 3.9% of the overall primary energy supply. Across studies, five biomass categories are considered relevant to Colombia: agricultural residues, animal waste, forestry and wood industry, biofuels and urban waste. (Gonzalez Salazar, et al., 2014). While some studies evaluated the energy potential of these categories, the entire energy potential of all biomass categories has not been reported. Among the most important agricultural residues are the sugarcane bagasse and rice husk with a capacity of power production estimated at 25 MW.
Wind is other source that has a big potential to be exploited in Colombia. Between 2010 and 2014 wind power represented on average 0.1% of energy generated in Colombia. In 2014, 70.2 GWh were generated and the generation grew by 21.9% compared to the 2013. Currently the wind power generation represent 0.1% of the country’s total net generation capacity. Some regions have an optimum wind speed for energy production. For example, the average wind speed in La Guajira, Atlántico, Norte de Santander and Cesar departments is 5 m/s and in the department of Bolivar wind speed can reach 11m/s (PROCOLOMBIA, 2015). The first wind farm built in Colombia by EPM is named Jeripachi, which in Wayuunaikie the native language of Wayuu community, means “winds from north-east”. This wind farm has a total capacity of 19.5 MW and is located in the municipality of Uribia in La Guajira, but another wind farm Ipapure with 200 MW may grow nest year because of reduction in cost and increase investment in the wind farm.
Colombia exclusive location surrounded by the warm tropical waters of the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean make it a suitable region for ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC). One ideal place for an OTEC facility is the maritime area around the island of San Andres (Deivis-Morales, Montoya-Sanchez, Osorio, & Otero-Díaz, 2014) In these sea surface temperature varies only slightly on the annual and interannual timescales The thermal difference encountered from the surface to a depth of 1000 m is always around 22⁰C -24 ⁰C and cold waters are available for intake at around 450 to 750 m, within a short horizontal distance from the coast (less than 2.5 km). At these depths, the 20 ⁰C thermal gradient required for OTEC operations is achieved.
The energy demands on San Andres Island is very high (158 GWh/year) when considering its small total area. The main reason for this is the high population density, approximately 3300 habitants/km2; nearly 87,600 people (DANE 2011), it also supports close to 400,000 tourists per year. Energy is supplied entirely by one 55MW capacity power plant which uses Diesel generators that require an annual consumption of 40 million liters. The other islands in the Archipelago, Old Providence and Santa Catalina, have relatively low energy demands (7.9 GWh/year) due to their low population density (263 people/km2). Therefore, their oil consumption is also much less (2 million liters per year). It is estimated that by 2050 the electricity demand growth on the main island will reach around 250 GWh/year. OTEC is a viable alternative since the requirements of consistently warm surface temperatures and steep slopes at a short distance from shore for the extraction of cold deep water are largely met in the southwestern part of the island. In this area a feasible 10 MW open cycle OTEC power plant could produce 80 GWh/year of electricity which would cover 50% of San Andres Island’s total energy demands, additional advantages such as development of new economic activities and improvement of the marginal areas in the island. The solar power generation today is the second source of renewable energy in the world, after the wind power. The cost of production has lower rapidly during the last 4 years. Meanwhile, Colombia has high potential for solar energy and advantages because solar radiation throughout the country is uniform during the year, the average of solar irradiation is 4.5 kWh/m2/d that is a value bigger than the global average of 3.9kWh/m2/d. La Guajira have the best average availability of the country with 6.0 Kwh/m2/d. The solar energy can be use for by everybody because the technology is very accessible, easy to installing and it’s possible to installed in the houses where the cost of traditional energy is very expensive. This could allowed a small producer to sell their surplus in the open market to anybody in need of energy.
The last but not least, is the Geothermal Power Generation where Colombia have a high energy potential unexploded. According with the Colombia Geothermal Atlas exist 4 areas with a great potential: The border with Ecuador (Volcanes Chiles-Cerro Negro), in the department of Nariño (Azufral Volcano), the National Natural Park of Los Nevados and the Paipa geothermal Area (Iza in Boyacá). In Colombia there has been few studies with the geothermal energy but the total potential is estimated between 1 and 2 GW. (G. & Olade, 2013).
Due to the social, economic and environmental impact of energy use, companies and the Colombia government are under strong pressure to improve the efficiency of the national grid and finally to provide energy to the non-interconnected zones in the country. To achieve this, Colombia must overcome all obstacles present. It Is necessary that the private and public sector work together to produce and development NCRE. There are many obstacles: high initial cost, financing difficulties, imperfect completion, strong oligopolies based on conventional sources and lack of information about renewables. However, the global market is changing and probably countries with a huge energy potential will become the new strong economies in the world.
In Conclusion, the depletion of fossil fuels, the impact of natural climatic events such as El Niño/La Niña on water resources and Colombia’s commitment to comprehensively address the implications of climate change are important factors for improve the grid, develop of non-conventional renewable energies and becoming an emerging market the next 34 years. The last 10 years, in Colombia have led to investment in the development and application of alternative technologies to produce electricity, based on other available renewable energy sources. The sources with more potential are the solar and wind energy, however, other sources like biomass, geothermal and OTEC must be considered. But the most important challenge is overcoming corruption in the country and guarantee the energy to vulnerable populations.
David Reyes
Rustic Home Bar - Home Bar An undermount sink, shaker cabinets, medium tone wood cabinets, solid surface worktops, brown backsplash, and wood backsplash are all featured in this mid-sized rustic single-wall wet bar design.
Retaining Walls Landscape in Sydney
This is an illustration of a medium-sized, contemporary, drought-tolerant, and decked backyard landscape.
Lord Monty.
Youngest of the seven cats in residence here.
©Robin Fifield 2023.
Purring Passive Power.
Earth Mother.
©Robin Fifield 2023.
If we consider the metaphorical idea of Earth as a mother carrying an unborn New World, it suggests taking actions to support a sustainable and thriving future for our planet. Here are some ways you can contribute to that vision:
1. Environmental Stewardship: Embrace a mindset of responsibility and care for the environment. Recognize that our actions impact the Earth and strive to be a responsible steward of its resources.
2. Sustainable Lifestyle Choices: Make conscious choices in your daily life that reduce your ecological footprint. This includes adopting sustainable practices like conserving water and energy, reducing waste, and choosing eco-friendly products.
3. Conservation and Restoration: Engage in efforts to protect and restore natural habitats. Support organizations that work towards conservation, reforestation, and wildlife preservation.
4. Climate Action: Recognize the urgency of addressing climate change. Advocate for policies and practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, promote renewable energy, and transition to a low-carbon economy.
5. Education and Awareness: Spread knowledge and raise awareness about environmental issues. Educate others about the importance of sustainability, biodiversity, and the interconnectedness of ecosystems.
6. Support Environmental Initiatives: Contribute to organizations and initiatives dedicated to environmental causes. This can involve donating funds, volunteering your time, or supporting campaigns and projects that aim to protect the environment.
7. Sustainable Agriculture and Food Choices: Support local and organic farmers, choose sustainably sourced and ethically produced food, reduce food waste, and consider adopting a plant-based or reduced-meat diet.
8. Responsible Consumption: Be mindful of your purchasing decisions. Prioritize durable, ethically produced, and environmentally friendly products. Avoid single-use items and opt for reusable alternatives.
9. Community Engagement: Get involved in local environmental projects, community gardens, or clean-up efforts. Collaborate with others to create positive change at the grassroots level.
10. Political Engagement: Stay informed about environmental policies and engage with your elected representatives. Voice your concerns and support candidates who prioritize environmental sustainability.
Chat GPT + Robin Fifield 2023.
Remember that each individual action, no matter how small, contributes to the collective effort of building a sustainable future. By working together, we can help "Earth Mother" carry her unborn New World to term and ensure a healthy and thriving planet for future generations.
Hello Void I went to the Lorde concert tonight and my life literally changed I am healed, so many bangers, divine unmatched vibes, top 10 life experience chefs kiss
turn it on in a new kind of bright, it's solar
Solar Power; Lorde 2021
What is Solar Energy / Solar Power? How solar energy works?
Solar energy or solar power is the source of renewable energy. It is produced from sun’s radiation. Solar energy is clean and environment friendly and is the most reliable form of renewable energy. Solar energy is used for giving electricity to homes, to businesses, for producing hot water, for heating homes. There is no limit of the energy produced from sun, sun’s energy falls on the earth in one hour is equal to the energy used by whole human population in one year. Sun has produced energy for billions for years. Energy produced from sun is in the form solar radiation, which make it possible to produce electricity.
Read more
This is a bad tweet
So before I go into why, I want to make clear that I'm pro-solar for a lot of reasons, I own a couple panels, I think we should do more of it, etc. etc. and I'll talk more about this at the end of the post.
But basically there's a couple reasons why solar can be problematic for an electrical grid.
Reason one is exactly what the MIT article said, the peak generation is not exactly aligned with the rhythms of power use. For the most part in the current electrical grid you have to use power at the same time as you make it, or it is lost forever. If you want to use the energy you made in the middle of the day in the evening, tough luck! Fortunately there's a lot of work going towards grid scale power storage, but each method has tradeoffs:
- batteries: biggest issue is just that we're not making enough of them. We need orders of magnitude more to do grid-level storage. They're cheap enough that a lot of people can afford a house battery now (although that can cause other issues) but the grid is very large. There's also some issues around lithium extraction (do we have enough? Can we do it in a way that's not an environmental disaster?) but overall they're still better than fossil fuels so. Alternative chemistries (like flow batteries and iron batteries) are in the works but they're years from being grid ready so at the moment batteries means lithium.
- pumped storage: Pump water uphill using power in the day, let it flow downhill at night (or whenever there's a need) to generate power. Stupid simple, uses the same tech as a dam. The main issue with this is that you need a place to put all that water high up next to a place where you can put a lot of water low down, so you need to be in the mountains, and you need to be okay with flooding somewhere (maybe two somewheres) to hold all that water. You can't just plop it down anywhere like a battery. It's expensive to site a massive dam project. Luckily it's possible to retrofit some existing dams with pumps to store power, but this is still rare.
- Hydrogen: Use energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, then recombine it in a fuel cell to get the power back sometime later. Hydrogen is neat because you can store it and move it somewhere else (say, to power a ship) but it's flammable, can move through metal, needs to be kept cold, and the electrolysis process is very inefficient with current tech. Oh and also oil companies are using it for greenwashing because right now most hydrogen is made from methane, which is very not green.
There are ways to "cheat" without storage, like running certain industries that can ramp up and down quickly only when there's an excess of power, but that means you've got stuff sitting around idle much of the time and not every industry can stop and start that quickly.
Currently we use stuff like coal (not as common in the US anymore), hydro, or nuclear to provide a baseload that runs all the time and let solar/methane/wind handle the peaks. If you have so much solar you're generating most of your power by it in the daytime, that can cause an issue for nuclear since those plants take hours to ramp up and down. Hydro as baseload can be easily ramped (also to follow peaks) but since it provides seasonal storage and minimum flow for water there can be limitations during certain parts of the year.
Reason two is that solar is also an example of a distributed power source. Traditionally, the power company makes power in one place and then sends it out to many other places. The grid is designed with this (more or less) one way flow in mind. But if a significant fraction of houses now have a few panels on the roof this flow pattern gets reversed, and now you may need to retrofit lines or add new ones. You also need to consider stuff like, if the grid goes down is there a way to let neighborhoods run isolated if they have independent generation? It can be done, but somebody needs to plan it, put up switches to turn stuff off, etc. But since a lot of households aren't paying for power anymore (since they have their own solar) or are even receiving money, who is paying for these infrastructure changes? It's not realistic to expect everyone to ditch the grid install solar and a battery either, because the capital cost is still relatively steep for a whole house system (although it pays off quickly and the price is getting cheaper all the time), and we also have stuff like steel production on the grid which really can't generate power locally (or be integrated into a neighborhood).
Another option is to send power really far, because while generation is peaking in California use might be peaking in NYC, so if you can send energy cross-country (or even between continents) you can better take advantage of the peak. There are already some large interconnect projects under construction in the US, but they're expensive and take a long time. Doing something like sending energy from the US to Europe (or vice versa) could be a way to distribute excess ultracheap solar energy, but we're a long way from doing that.
A lot of power companies are making bad choices in response, doing stuff like banning new home solar (yikes) or require people to pay a minimum fee even if they're totally disconnected from the grid. Having a separate "grid maintenance" fee and "power generation" fee might be one option and some companies are doing this but I don't claim to have the answer. IMO it's a good thing companies are starting to feel backed into a corner by solar, it means that adoption is actually becoming significant relative to total generation!
So while corporate greed is 100% a factor in this, the truth is a lot more complicated. The power grid is one of the most complex systems humans manage while also being one of the most critical to our continued existence. All of its components have to work together in a delicate balance all day, all year.
But to circle back around, we're going to have to figure this stuff out and quick if we want to stop global warming. There is no perfect solution to power generation, we're going to need to do solar, wind, nuclear, hydro, tidal, etc. and we're going to have to reshape the grid to make it happen. Solar has huge benefits and even with the cost of storage it's still cheaper than a lot of fossil fuels. Having excess generation capacity before we have storage figured out isn't necessarily a bad thing, either.
My power company has a "green power" option which (due to the laws of physics) can't guarantee all green electrons to my outlets but it does fund buildout of infrastructure for renewables. Some companies just use this kind of thing as a greenwashing slush fund so definitely research where the money actually goes, and it's understandable if you can afford a larger power bill.
I'm a fan of nationalization of energy infrastructure to remove the profit motive and make subsidization of new infrastructure more palatable. There's probably a lot of different ways to make this work and we're going to have to "yes and" our way through it. There's have been some pretty big successes in running moderate scale grids on renewables and I hope to see that continue and expand.
This is a bad tweet because it pushes an oversimplified reaction which just serves to get you mad. It's an easy sell because power companies can be some of the most ghoulish out there (see: Texas cold snap surge pricing) and there's a kernel of truth (power companies would absolutely like to monopolize solar, which they have successfully done in some regions).
It's worth noting that a lot of this policy is being decided at the state and local level. You can make a big difference by getting in contact with your state government and telling them this is a priority, as well as voting for people with a forward-thinking energy policy. It may feel like your vote goes nowhere but these elections are often decided by thousands, hundreds, or even tens of votes so you can absolutely make a difference.
👌👌
"Cody Two Bears, a member of the Sioux tribe in North Dakota, founded Indigenized Energy, a native-led energy company with a unique mission — installing solar farms for tribal nations in the United States.
This initiative arises from the historical reliance of Native Americans on the U.S. government for power, a paradigm that is gradually shifting.
The spark for Two Bears' vision ignited during the Standing Rock protests in 2016, where he witnessed the arrest of a fellow protester during efforts to prevent the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline on sacred tribal land.
Disturbed by the status quo, Two Bears decided to channel his activism into action and create tangible change.
His company, Indigenized Energy, addresses a critical issue faced by many reservations: poverty and lack of access to basic power.
Reservations are among the poorest communities in the country, and in some, like the Navajo Nation, many homes lack electricity.
Even in regions where the land has been exploited for coal and uranium, residents face obstacles to accessing power.
Renewable energy, specifically solar power, is a beacon of hope for tribes seeking to overcome these challenges.
Not only does it present an environmentally sustainable option, but it has become the most cost-effective form of energy globally, thanks in part to incentives like the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
Tribal nations can receive tax subsidies of up to 30% for solar and wind farms, along with grants for electrification, climate resiliency, and energy generation.
And Indigenized Energy is not focused solely on installing solar farms — it also emphasizes community empowerment through education and skill development.
In collaboration with organizations like Red Cloud Renewable, efforts are underway to train Indigenous tribal members for jobs in the renewable energy sector.
The program provides free training to individuals, with a focus on solar installation skills.
Graduates, ranging from late teens to late 50s, receive pre-apprenticeship certification, and the organization is planning to launch additional programs to support graduates with career services such as resume building and interview coaching...
The adoption of solar power by Native communities signifies progress toward sustainable development, cultural preservation, and economic self-determination, contributing to a more equitable and environmentally conscious future.
These initiatives are part of a broader movement toward "energy sovereignty," wherein tribes strive to have control over their own power sources.
This movement represents not only an economic opportunity and a source of jobs for these communities but also a means of reclaiming control over their land and resources, signifying a departure from historical exploitation and an embrace of sustainable practices deeply rooted in Indigenous cultures."
-via Good Good Good, December 10, 2023
Could Europe Be Powered by African Solar Energy?
For a long time, people looking for big fixes to climate change have been talking about building huge solar installations in North Africa, which gets a lot more sun than most of the places where solar power is big — Germany, for example. But now, it looks as if someone finally is doing it.
Next month in Ouarzazate, Morocco, the first portion of what eventually will be the world’s biggest concentrated solar power plant – called Noor I – is set to go online, according to the Guardian, a British newspaper.
Eventually, when the entire $10 billion complex, which is being financed with assistance from the World Bank and European Union, is completed in 2020, it will generate 580 megawatts of electricity, enough to provide a big portion of Morocco’s energy needs while still leaving plenty of juice for export. The complex could prevent 700,000 tons of carbon dioxide from being spewed into the atmosphere each year.
The plant uses an ingenious technology for getting the most out of sunlight. A huge array of 500,000 crescent-shaped mirrors focus sunlight and transmit it to a single point on a tower. (The mirrors actually have tiny computers in them, which adjust the angle throughout the day to gather the most energy.)
The plant could turn Morocco, which depends upon fossil fuel imports to fill 94 percent of its energy needs, into a major producer of electricity for export. Find out how by clicking here.
Could Europe Be Powered by African Solar Energy?
For a long time, people looking for big fixes to climate change have been talking about building huge solar installations in North Africa, which gets a lot more sun than most of the places where solar power is big — Germany, for example. But now, it looks as if someone finally is doing it.
Next month in Ouarzazate, Morocco, the first portion of what eventually will be the world’s biggest concentrated solar power plant – called Noor I – is set to go online, according to the Guardian, a British newspaper.
Eventually, when the entire $10 billion complex, which is being financed with assistance from the World Bank and European Union, is completed in 2020, it will generate 580 megawatts of electricity, enough to provide a big portion of Morocco’s energy needs while still leaving plenty of juice for export. The complex could prevent 700,000 tons of carbon dioxide from being spewed into the atmosphere each year.
The plant uses an ingenious technology for getting the most out of sunlight. A huge array of 500,000 crescent-shaped mirrors focus sunlight and transmit it to a single point on a tower. (The mirrors actually have tiny computers in them, which adjust the angle throughout the day to gather the most energy.)