Quote:
Originally Posted by Christ
The towers have heated surface area equivalent to it's entire structure. Much more surface area than just the few hundred sqft that it takes up on the ground. They're also basically clear, that I've seen, with a turbine on top. All the heat that rises must pass the turbine, which is connected to a generator. They don't lose efficiency from being hot, like solar panels do. In fact, the hotter they get, the better. The heat rising draws in cooler air from the bottom, repeating the process. Best of all, they don't really need the sun directly shining on them. As long as there is a temp differential, they will still produce something.
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Huh? That's so full of errors, I don't know where to start. First, solar thermal power plants take up extremely large areas of ground. Sunlight only has about about 700 watts per square meter at ground level, so you aren't going to get megawatts of power unless you cover thousands of square meters of surface. Then you've got the problem of storing heat. Ever try to do that, say keeping your coffee hot for a few hours? Heat conducts. Unless they're planning to build giant thermos bottles (and how much will that cost?), their molten salt is going to cool down in short order...