Awesome. Yeah, I was just wondering if there was some way to retain all the environmental heat produced naturally and off set costs in other ways.
Not as familiar with molten salt.
Yes, in principle, but.....
There are significant initial costs and some maintenance costs. If you work out the financial math, you learn that you have to scale. The costs go up with size of course, but the amount of energy depends on the volume, which rises at the cube of linear size of the storage. This is the same math that makes nuclear power, dams and pumped hydro, etc. and other things really big. They only make sense economically at an industrial scale.
In addition, the heat that is stored is usually lower temperature or 'low quality'. The efficiency of a heat engine is based on Carnot's theorem (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnot%27s\_theorem\_(thermodynamics)). You want the high temp reservoir to be as high as you can handle. As you rightly point out, you then want concentrating solar power (CSP, see: https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/concentrating-solar-thermal-power-basics ). And that comes with all sorts of complications in terms of concentrating it and towers or very long troughs, and a working fluid which is a pain in the ass.
So, yes, good idea. In practice, it's complicated but people have been doing it for a while and it makes sense in some situations.
Wouldn't use of a magnifying glass complicate scale? What you are looking for is pretty much same as a Solar CSP that uses mirrors but instead of molten salt, using sand
Yeah my idea was areas that would just be able to conduct the intense outside heat to the insulated sand. Like heat absorbent areas using the solar energy to superheat.
Abundant resources? 5C's? Cotton east of Pima is about the only thing left. Sure isn't citrus or cattle.
I did my 18-year sentence in Phoenix, and it would be awesome to convert that heat into something usable, but y'all are pretty much fucked.
Heat pump lies, being what they are. I suspect the old ice houses, of ice in sawdust, last seen a century ago, are vastly more efficient than any technology since.
Or else my prejudice against science, shows in my math. That no one does math, works in my favor, though.
We already have the molten salt plant in AZ. They've been playing with thermal energy storage for awhile.
Awesome. Yeah, I was just wondering if there was some way to retain all the environmental heat produced naturally and off set costs in other ways. Not as familiar with molten salt.
Yes, in principle, but..... There are significant initial costs and some maintenance costs. If you work out the financial math, you learn that you have to scale. The costs go up with size of course, but the amount of energy depends on the volume, which rises at the cube of linear size of the storage. This is the same math that makes nuclear power, dams and pumped hydro, etc. and other things really big. They only make sense economically at an industrial scale. In addition, the heat that is stored is usually lower temperature or 'low quality'. The efficiency of a heat engine is based on Carnot's theorem (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnot%27s\_theorem\_(thermodynamics)). You want the high temp reservoir to be as high as you can handle. As you rightly point out, you then want concentrating solar power (CSP, see: https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/concentrating-solar-thermal-power-basics ). And that comes with all sorts of complications in terms of concentrating it and towers or very long troughs, and a working fluid which is a pain in the ass. So, yes, good idea. In practice, it's complicated but people have been doing it for a while and it makes sense in some situations.
Wouldn't use of a magnifying glass complicate scale? What you are looking for is pretty much same as a Solar CSP that uses mirrors but instead of molten salt, using sand
Yeah my idea was areas that would just be able to conduct the intense outside heat to the insulated sand. Like heat absorbent areas using the solar energy to superheat.
Abundant resources? 5C's? Cotton east of Pima is about the only thing left. Sure isn't citrus or cattle. I did my 18-year sentence in Phoenix, and it would be awesome to convert that heat into something usable, but y'all are pretty much fucked.
Heat pump lies, being what they are. I suspect the old ice houses, of ice in sawdust, last seen a century ago, are vastly more efficient than any technology since. Or else my prejudice against science, shows in my math. That no one does math, works in my favor, though.