| DOE Marks $60 M for Solar Thermal Funding |
| Written by Hank Green | ||
| Thursday, 08 May 2008 | ||
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The most near-term, cost-effective solar solution is undoubtedly solar thermal. While photovoltaics, which convert light directly into electricity, can have a significantly smaller footprint and higher efficiency...solar thermal has generally proven that it can create electricity at a lower cost. With that in mind, the U.S. Department of Energy has decided to spend $60 M over the next five years developing low-cost concentrating solar thermal technology (like the parabolic trough pictured from Schott Solar.) They plan on making between 10 and 20 awards to industry and universities working on increasing the efficiency and decreasing the costs of solar thermal power. They will also be funding projects related to "advanced thermal storage." At first this might seem slightly unrelated. In fact, what they're looking for is a way to store the heat captured during the day so that they can continue to generate electricity throughout the night. This is another possible advantage to solar thermal technology. If the heat can be stored in some medium, say molten salt for example, then that medium could, in effect, make the solar plant a giant battery. Photovoltaic plants, on the other hand, would require some other form of backup energy to keep the juice flowing at night. Via Cleantech
Comments
(6)
60 M?
written by John , May 09, 2008
does 60 million over 5 years sound pretty small to anyone but me? I mean compared to the U.S. government budget. Not mine personally. But it seems like we subsidize the oil industry, and I suspect we give them more than 12M a year. Just an opinion. Not that I would reject the money, just thinking it could be a bit more without really breaking the bank.
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written by Roger , May 09, 2008
Good gravy! Its pathetically small, ooooohhhh, our government, the cheapest with the leastest for the most vital. God, we suck as a country!
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written by EV , May 09, 2008
60 Million is enough to get the development process going. Consider that the DARPA urban challenge was done with under $10 million. It doesn't take a lot of money to start the initial research and find out who has the best ideas. So quit your complaining.
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written by unregistered , May 11, 2008
I think it is a good start.
Get the Government Out
written by Andrew Rule , May 13, 2008
Although I would like to see far more funding than the paltry $60M (and I know there is elsewhere), I would that the government not give it for a few reasons. First, the government should not give subsidies to anyone for two reasons. One, you don't have the consent of the people who are paying it: the tax payer. Think about how most readers here must feel that their tax money is going to subsidize such things are the oil industry, or something else that is offensive to the reader. And second, when the government funds something, it usually goes to very inefficient uses. Think of ethanol which consumes almost as much energy and petrol fuel gallon for gallon to grow and process the corn to make ethanol. That funding would have made more sense being used in some other renewable resources.
Putting corruption and politics aside, the government, by the best of intentions, is incapable of efficiently funding useful arts and sciences. It is the same reason that the Soviet Union collapsed economically: because there wasn’t an effective pricing system to put the scarce resources to the places of the most need. Only a free market can do that. There is another mistake the people usually make. When we see the article above, and say “This country sucks because look how much this country does NOT fund solar thermal energy.” It is making the mistake of how much the government is funding this endeavor with how much other people in this country is funding it, or developing it, perhaps some of the readers here, without government funding. When someone uses his own money to develop these needed resources, he has an incentive to make the most out of it, and to see that it gets results. Tom Paine in his 1776 booklet “Common Sense” which sparked off the Revolutionary War made this distinction between government and its people, the rest of society. With noting this distinction, the USA became the most free, prosperous, and I dare say the most ecological country in the world.
roof of house
written by dwight m lee , May 26, 2008
speaking of solar ... I just bought a house in Florida and will be moving within the next 60 days. What is the best use of a house roof for solar energy today and what federal, state, county, and local grants are still there for ecogeeks to reduce the cost of “going solar” by use of the roof of their home?
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