October 30, 2008
What's the most efficient way to make electricity from solar power on a large scale?
water_skipper asked:
What's the most efficient way to make electricity from solar power on a large scale? Is it using photovoltaic cells, or mirros and a turbine or what? I'd be interested in a web site that compares all the options by efficiency, cost, reliability in cloudy weather, and stuff like that.
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In a large scale, focusing the light to boil water. This is being done in the desert in So. California. They use many car-size mirrors that focus their reflection on a boiler mounted in a tower. The steam drives a generator to produce electricity or, the heat is stored in molten salt before it is used, to allow for clouds blocking the sun temporarily.
The electric windmills (the wind is driven by the sun) and solar panels may produce slightly cheaper energy, now.
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Mirrors pointed at sterling engine is more efficient than boiling water. A combination of boiling water that turns a turbine and then heats a sterling engine would be the best combination, but I haven't heard of anyone trying it.
A sterling engine runs on temperature difference. Light gases expand and contract according to how hot they are and this engine takes advantage of that. Sterling engines are perhaps the most efficient engine of their size. There is a project in California to create a large amount of acres of sun driven sterling engines for power.
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develope more powerful mirrors to harness the solar rays
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Huge solar farm:
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