Comments on: Hawaiian firm shrinks solar thermal power

It's not as common as solar photovoltaic panels, but Hawaiian start-up Sopogy thinks small-scale solar thermal makes sense.
Photos: Concentrating on solar power in Hawaii

[dargon19888]

Why not Geo Thermal?

Hello! Hawaii? Volcanoes? Anyone?

You're sitting on a really hot geothermal site, so why not take advantage of it?

[SactoGuy018]

Geothermal only possible on "Big Island"

The problem with trying to tap into geothermal power is that the only place where it works is on the island of Hawai'i, the "Big Island." That's not very practical when it comes to localing geothermal-powered generators on the "Big Island" and transmitting them all the way back to Maui and Oahu, where the power is needed the most.

[venturerock]

Thoughts on Geothermal vs. Solar Thermal

In addition to the previous comment about geothermal as it relates to Hawaii, another issue is that geothermal is baseload. In microgrids such as Hawaii, baseload is important for frequency and spinning reserve. Geothermal baseload could displace critical spinning reserve which preserve grid integrity at the most efficient parts of the generation curve making utility economics work.

On the other side of the coin, solar thermal matches peak load and addresses the most expensive kilowatt hour. This is probably one of the main reasons why this small solar thermal idea was born in Hawaii.

[venturerock]

Its about time

Smaller scale Concentrated Solar Power makes a lot of sense. Examine history, CSP technologies have been in operation since the mid-80's exhibiting dispatchability, demand reduction and reliability. CSP also reduces utility issues with baseloading as it only operates during the day which directly addresses the demand curve. Storage can be added to overcomes the intermittancy challenge. It has left to be seen what kind of economies of scale this company will achieve in its ability to bring CSP to the home or smaller installations, but it is logical that CSP is economical for industrial and commercial uses today.

[xwindowsjunkie]

Whoops, they must be sniffing vulcano gas!

The website is a single page with a email address block on it. It doesn't work in FireFox 2.0 or IE7.

Also the info@ address doesn't work I found in their boilerplate Terms of Use and just bounces back. Maybe the dudes forgot to pay their web site bills? Maybe they weren't for real.

Using "nano-technology" to surface their reflectors? Give me a break!

Dilbert had a cartoon recently that utilized "nano-technology" to fight terrorism. It wasn't by accident that the pointy-haired boss was the one suggesting the technology and usage connection!