venturerock's community profile

1 to 2 of 2

My comments

Thoughts on Geothermal vs. Solar Thermal
In addition to the previous comment about geothermal as it relates to Hawaii, another issue is that geothermal is baseload. In microgrids such as Hawaii, baseload is important for frequency and spinning reserve. Geothermal baseload could displace critical spinning reserve which preserve grid integrity at the most efficient parts of the generation curve making utility economics work.

On the other side of the coin, solar thermal matches peak load and addresses the most expensive kilowatt hour. This is probably one of the main reasons why this small solar thermal idea was born in Hawaii.
November 4, 2007

0 replies

Its about time
Smaller scale Concentrated Solar Power makes a lot of sense. Examine history, CSP technologies have been in operation since the mid-80's exhibiting dispatchability, demand reduction and reliability. CSP also reduces utility issues with baseloading as it only operates during the day which directly addresses the demand curve. Storage can be added to overcomes the intermittancy challenge. It has left to be seen what kind of economies of scale this company will achieve in its ability to bring CSP to the home or smaller installations, but it is logical that CSP is economical for industrial and commercial uses today.
November 4, 2007

0 replies

More information: Newsletters; CNET Mobile; Customer Help Center; RSS; CNET Widgets; About CNET