Oh jeez, that somehow feels even dumber than what I thought it meant which is “it got so hot that solar panels stopped working after dark”. Like they were blaming the “extreme heat”… So by their understanding, Solar should work all summer long day or night because it’s hot, but not work at all in winter because it’s cold?
They have trade offs, like every power solution. One perk is that they generally cleaner to produce, since shiny metal is simpler than modern complex solar panels.
That being said, I have little faith in any report issued under the current administration.
It requires sunlight to charge, not to produce electricity. Because liquid salt doesn’t cool the moment it goes dark the plant can continue to use it to boil water to spin a turbine for a fair bit of time without sunlight. I believe one implementation only produces power at night, and spends the day collecting heat.
But yes, solar power does require sunlight at some point.
It’s kinda moot however, because having now read the original post I was correct to assume they (the doe) was being disingenuous. The heat they seemed to be referring to was “the weather”. As in “despite the high temperature, the sun still went down causing solar generation to ebb in a predictable fashion that grid operators were unsurprised by. This is why it’s good we forced them to keep 150 year old coal plants burning”.
I’m sorry, buddy. It’s real.
https://xcancel.com/ENERGY/status/2080310429159444583
They think high temps is what generates the electricity.
Oh jeez, that somehow feels even dumber than what I thought it meant which is “it got so hot that solar panels stopped working after dark”. Like they were blaming the “extreme heat”… So by their understanding, Solar should work all summer long day or night because it’s hot, but not work at all in winter because it’s cold?
For some of them it actually is, not all are photoelectric.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_tower
They have trade offs, like every power solution. One perk is that they generally cleaner to produce, since shiny metal is simpler than modern complex solar panels.
That being said, I have little faith in any report issued under the current administration.
That still requires sunlight to work…
It requires sunlight to charge, not to produce electricity. Because liquid salt doesn’t cool the moment it goes dark the plant can continue to use it to boil water to spin a turbine for a fair bit of time without sunlight. I believe one implementation only produces power at night, and spends the day collecting heat.
But yes, solar power does require sunlight at some point.
It’s kinda moot however, because having now read the original post I was correct to assume they (the doe) was being disingenuous. The heat they seemed to be referring to was “the weather”. As in “despite the high temperature, the sun still went down causing solar generation to ebb in a predictable fashion that grid operators were unsurprised by. This is why it’s good we forced them to keep 150 year old coal plants burning”.
This is probably what explains that 1% generated by solar during the night.
Damn it. I think that was the last little bit of faith in humanity I had left.
I should buy a bulldozer