DW> Solar-thermal power is cheap, much cheaper than photovoltaic power. All
DW> it needs is a bunch of mirrors and a boiler on a tower. The larger the
DW> scale, the cheaper (per kilowatt) it is.
 
During the day.
 
To have power during the night, you need a technology to store the warmth
for electricity production during the night using that warmth ... we're
talking massive storage of warmth ...
 
"That" is what makes it unaffordable and super-expensive ... as I
said, take away the subsidies and other economic incentives then this
technology is 5X as expensive as nuclear power ... and that includes the
storing of spent material for time-frames as you indicate.
 
If it were really that cheap, the technology would already be used all over
the globe, these are the simple laws of economics.
 
Don't take me as an ignorant on this, I don't go by slogans. Some while ago
I was involved in a mega-project in Spain as you describe ... the results
are: too expensive during the night and as a result overal too expensive.
 
The main challenge is to get our consumption of wattage down which on a
global scale is impossible with large portions of the Far East still having
to come on-line. We're on an energy roller-coaster and "green"
energy is still way too young and too unproductive to be a viable
alternative.
 
It doesn't provide solutions [yet] for the "now" at the scale we
need them [now].
 
 \%/{at}rd

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