Tuesday, May 11, 2010 at 1:10:27 PM - by Nate Lew
The Department of Energy has announced that it will distribute $62 million among various businesses with an eye on furthering concentrating solar power technology.
Concentrated solar power projects are already being developed in some U.S. states, and they also exist in a handful of countries like Spain. The technology uses large numbers of mirrors to concentrate sunlight that is used to heat liquid and drive turbines to create electricity.
"Developing low-cost, renewable energy generation is crucial to meeting our nation’s increasing demands for electricity," said Secretary Chu. "By investing in the development of low-cost solar technologies we can create new jobs and pave the way towards a clean-energy future."
Specifically, the funding will be used to develop improvements in current technologies and components. Another area of research is thermal energy storage. So far, some facilities use molten salt technology to keep turbines running after the sun goes down. With help from these research funds, the government hopes to see the development of systems that can generate energy for up to 18 hours a day.
One issue to keep an eye on in the coming years will be environmental concerns that can surround this form of clean energy. This is because efforts to develop concentrated solar energy in desert areas have run into concern about the amount of water that such systems tend to require.
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