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DailyDirt: Capturing The Power Of The Sun…

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Solar power is literally everywhere, just not at night. But it’s free to capture, if you have the means. Plenty of folks have been trying to capture enough solar energy to power cities or cars or whatever gadget you can think of, but sunlight just isn’t as convenient as we’d like it to be. Solar energy is still going to become a larger and larger contributor to the mix of energy resources, and even as oil prices remain low, it looks like some companies are still committed to investing in it. Go, solar power, go….

• The world’s largest coal supplier, Shenhua Group Corp, is partnering with SolarReserve to build 1,000 megawatts of solar power facilities in China for a couple billion bucks. This is just one step towards China building solar power plants capable of generating 10,000 megawatts of electricity by 2020. [url]
• Ivanpah is a huge solar energy farm with about 350,000 computer controlled mirrors redirecting sunlight at a tower in the middle of a California-Nevada border desert. A few of its mirrors were aimed incorrectly and damaged its operations, but this kind of solar farm design might not be very economical for very long, anyway. [url]
• New solar energy capturing materials could help harvest sunlight during the day and release the energy at night — or at any other time, on demand. Chemically-based storage materials — aka solar thermal fuels (STF) — have been around for a while, but the development of inexpensive, durable solid (transparent) materials with this ability might be more practical and lead to smarter windows and surfaces that can absorb light and emit heat. [url]

After you’ve finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.

Filed Under: energy, ivanpah, materials, renewable energy, solar, solar farm, solar thermal fuels, stfs
Companies: shenhua group corp, solarreserve