On 7/18/2013 6:36 AM, Henry Baker wrote:
Somewhere in a desert near L.A., there's a field of mirrors controlled by little pre-Arduino sun-tracking computers that aim the sun at a tower in the middle.
The idea is to create steam in the tower.
I assume that because there hasn't been much press, this idea isn't working out as well as the promoter had expected.
It's near Lancaster and I think it's working just fine. It's the only one in the U.S. but there are several others in the world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_solar_thermal_power_stations Apparently the parabolic trough design seems preferred.
Among other problems, transmission losses from the desert to L.A. will eat up perhaps 50% of the electrical energy.
That's a huge over estimate of the loss. Average loss rate is about 7%, but only a small part of that is the loss due to the long, high voltage lines. Measured transmission line losses are 2% to 3% per 1000Km. http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2010/ph240/harting1/ Brent