Concentrated Solar Power

Discussions center on using mirrors to concentrate sunlight for thermal energy generation, including solar power towers, molten salt storage, and Stirling engines, often comparing efficiency to photovoltaic panels.

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Keywords

FIRE US SES www.bbc sciencedirect.com PV dailymail.co IR en.m smithsonianmag.com solar heat mirrors thermal sunlight pv panels molten energy sun

Sample Comments

socialdemocrat • Feb 10, 2022 • View on HN

No it doesn't: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_solar_power

Klathmon • Dec 22, 2018 • View on HN

I'm not sure if you are joking or not, but something like this is still used for solar power generation.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_tower

GrumpyNl • Aug 27, 2019 • View on HN

Cant you use sunlight and guide it through mirrors with rotating shelf's?

Retr0id • Nov 4, 2025 • View on HN

Intriguing, but wouldn't it be even more efficient to just paint something black and let the sun heat it directly?

giantrobot • Oct 10, 2022 • View on HN

That's easy, just put solar panels in the receiver!

DoctorOetker • Aug 13, 2018 • View on HN

wouldn't the energy efficiency be low? effectively: light source -> PV panels, focus etc are bound to be difficult (long distance so parallel rays, any tiny deviation... well schlieren photography) and then there's diffuse scattering

venomsnake • Jun 8, 2013 • View on HN

My physics are a bit crap lately but aren't there some cheaper and low tech solutions to the problem. If you got the mirrors and the heat won't some kind of sterling engine with the cooling element dug in the earth have substantially lower costs?

hkt • Aug 24, 2023 • View on HN

Solar thermal panels can be used for this!

ummwhat • Dec 26, 2020 • View on HN

If there is sun why not skip the middle man and use an array of mirrors for direct heating?

anovikov • Mar 4, 2018 • View on HN

True, solar thermal using steerable mirrors, can do it.