h/t NAAC
American Thinker\ By Norman Rogers
What follows is my educated opinion.
The Heliogen company is a provider of “artificial intelligence enabled” solar power. They just received an award from the Department of Energy to build a prototype plant that generates electricity.
As a student of solar energy and the author of the book Dumb Energy, my opinion is that this is another solar energy scheme designed to vacuum up government and private money. Heliogen is promoting concentrated solar power or CSP. CSP uses optical methods, generally mirrors, to concentrate sunlight so that high temperatures can be obtained. If you ever used a magnifying glass to start a fire you were using CSP.
A Heliogen demonstration plant and press release can be seen here. The proposed prototype plant, for which the government is providing $39 million, will use super critical CO2 rather than steam as the turbine working fluid. Part of the heat collected during the day will be stored in hot rocks where it can be extracted after sunset to continue electricity generation. Turbines using super critical CO2 are a mostly theoretical technology. The potential advantages are greater efficiency and smaller equipment size. A general rule is that the higher the turbine inlet temperature the better the efficiency. A 20% gain in efficiency may be possible with CO2 turbines as compared to using steam. read more
CO2???? OMG!
Sounds like a good way to turn the planet into a barren wasteland.
After James Bond recovered the Solex Agitator from Scaramanga in The Man With The Golden Gun we should have had free energy worldwide…
What happened?
And whattaya bet Pelosi and Hunter already own stock in it.
FJB
sounds like a Rube Goldberg setup
betcha pelosi and pals are invested in that
This will get boosters, too- financial boosters, and probably will be manufactured in china and brought here on mcconnells bats
A technology that can show it will be financially viable will get financial investors, and won’t go to the trouble of getting government funding.
A Solyndra that Solyndras government Solyndra will Solyndra government funding – until the funding runs out (the executives having taken the bulk of it) and the Solyndra goes bankrupt without selling much of anything.
Wait…..WHAT? Using CO2 in a SOLAR electrical generating plant! O-M-G!! Using an environmental pollutant (in the Greenies own words) to generate environmentally “friendly” electricity?! O-M-G!! The irony and hypocrisy is thick enough to cut with a butcher knife!
ROFLOL!!!! Wadda buncha maroons. And it would be even more hilarious if it weren’t for our tax dollars being wasted on this scam of a boondoggle.
If we’re not chopping birds with windmills, we’re flash frying them in mid flight with solar-thermal.
So that’s why they want to build that CO2 collector in the Midwest!
I can’t get past the hot rocks. Hot rocks as in stone age?
I’m wondering how the Congress expects to pay off their campaign donors with a lousy 39 million. That doesn’t even qualify as laundry money. IIRR, Soylandra got a half billion.
Interesting article. Embedded within the good technical descriptions and evaluations are, for me, the really important bits are this middle paragraph:
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝙜𝙡𝙤𝙗𝙖𝙡 𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙘𝙖𝙢, 𝘢 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝙟𝙪𝙣𝙠 𝙨𝙘𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙤𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙮 𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙨. 𝘐𝘧 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘭 𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘭𝘺, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘊𝘖2 𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘶𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳. 𝘕𝘶𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝙨𝙪𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙪𝙨 𝙚𝙣𝙫𝙞𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙨. 𝘛𝘩𝘶𝘴, 𝘸𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘴.
…and the last one:
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘰-𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘹𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘧𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘶𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘴. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘨𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵’𝘴 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘵𝘰 𝘊𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘧𝘢𝘷𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘨𝘰𝘢𝘭𝘴. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘦𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘢 𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮. 𝘼𝙨 𝙙𝙞𝙛𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙪𝙡𝙩 𝙖𝙨 𝙞𝙩 𝙢𝙖𝙮 𝙗𝙚, 𝙬𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙛𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩.
@ Uncle Al ʘ FU46i January 3, 2022 at 8:42 pm
> 𝘼𝙨 𝙙𝙞𝙛𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙪𝙡𝙩 𝙖𝙨 𝙞𝙩 𝙢𝙖𝙮 𝙗𝙚, 𝙬𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙛𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩.
The difficulty is not in the fighting. Look at the real-ity of the field.
The difficulty (if anyone insists on undertaking the project) is offering something worth fighting for. “You’ve lived short enough!” (fighting, the real fighting, is always the young men’s past time) “Now, get over there, and get those trannys out of girls’ sports! The misandrist lesbians need to get their boots back on your throats!” “And when you’re through” (those still alive) “stop those ‘new’ billionaires from looting hoi polloi! Be sure those old billionaires get back to looting hoi polloi! And make DAMN sure you don’t disrupt any boomer ‘investments’, while you’re at it!”
Now… if’fin you old coots wanna’ gun up, and git’tr done… well… good on ya’.
Anonymous January 3, 2022 at 9:53 pm
You couldn’t queer the pitch any harder if you tried. Funny, you talking about difficulty, then you shit all over the blanket with nonsense.
Department Of Energy? Nah. More like the Department Of Fumbducks.
Where there are mirrors, there’s gonna be smoke.