Doubts on Solar

Timothy Taylor finds a study by Charles R. Frank, Jr. that tries to assess the cost of solar’s lack of reliability. Taylor quotes Frank:

we estimate that it would take 7.30 MW of solar capacity, costing roughly four times as much per MW to produce the same electrical output with the same degree of reliability as a baseload gas combined cycle plant. It requires an investment of approximately $29 million in utility-scale solar capacity to produce the same output with the same reliability as a $1 million investment in gas combined cycle.

6 thoughts on “Doubts on Solar

  1. Is this the same thing as saying intermittent renewable requires a storage technology?

    • Solar just needs to get better in every way. Concentrated solar using molten salt and Stirling engine generators can load follow and appears fairly efficient and is technologically fairly straightforward.

  2. Don’t forget the more than factor of two difference in costs when delivering that power.

  3. I think it would be cool (pun) for here in Florida if someone would make a solar/air-conditioner combo that would cool a home way down if the sun were out and let it coast at night. So you would set you thermostat with a range say 65 to 79 degrees. So no matter how cloudy and dark it got, it would not allow the temp to rise above 79 but if the sun is available it would take the temp down to 65 and then let is coast through the night back up to 79.
    It would do the opposite in the winter. The heat pump would not the temp get below 65 but if plenty of sun is available during the day it would bring the temp up to 79 and let it coast down through the night.

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