Stephen A. Lawrence wrote:
> > I hate to use Wikipedia, but this photo shows damaged mirrors, which > > indicate the limits of the technology (the lifetime of the installation): > > > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Solarplant-050406-05.jpg > Weird! What on Earth happened to them? It looks like somebody dropped > a handful of rocks on the installation from a few hundred feet above it. > > Shards of the broken mirrors are lying around on the ground at two or > three of the larger damage points. I read somewhere that the primary source of damage is high winds. I noticed a lot of damage to the corners I am guessing maintenance trucks have run into them. The biggest maintenance problem is keeping the mirrors clean. They have a clever robotic gadget to do that now. It is a shame Luz was driven out of business by the anti-alternative energy people. They set impossible requirements, mainly by passing laws and rules * restricting* the size of Luz installations. If they had been allowed to expand to 500 MW or 1 GW plants, as originally planned, they would have been profitable. By now we would probably have the equivalent of 10 or 20 nukes worth of solar-thermal plants, cheaper by far per kilowatt than any alternative, including coal or uranium. Don't let anyone tell you that no one opposes alternative energy. Not only do they oppose it, they will every dirty political trick in the book to prevent it. - Jed
