Recently learned that all the energy in my EV's batteries fits in ~2.25 gallons of gas. And the EV goes about the same distance on a full charge as my old Subaru did on a tank of gas. That means the other 10 gallons of the old girl's tank—$41.5 out of every $50 fill-up—was waste.
Blows my mind.
This is a thing. Curved mirrors create a focus point of solar light. At the focus point is a pipe of oil, which superheats. The oil is used to heat water, turn it to steam, and activate a turbine. IIRC they are approx. equal in efficiency
They used to burn to death, yes
That said, there are now standards established for how many mirrors can direct what intensity of solar energy in a single ray so that it isn’t deadly to them
jfc
I just looked up rates at which fossil fuel electricity generation kills birds and the answer is between half a million and a million annually according to Pepper Trail, forensic ornithologist with the Service’s Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, Oregon @.@
Has the big downside compared to PV of only working with direct sunlight, so only really viable in arid locations. But some interesting possibilities with regards to built-in energy storage (big tank of molten salt) and industrial applications (a lot of process can input energy as heat directly)
In totally clear, perfect weather, concentrated solar thermal wins but PV is more consistent. However, using supercritical CO2 instead of water as a working fluid can make any thermal power system a lot more efficient.
CST in very dry deserts, used for heavy industry/pollution mitigation seems good.
