By Douglas Fischer, Daily Climate
Posted: 11/21/2008 10:47:55 AM PST

There is energy to be harvested in deserts of Southern California, Arizona, Spain and Africa: Sunlight focused so intensely it can melt salt, vaporize water and run air conditioners from Phoenix to Seville long after the sun has set.
This is concentrating solar power, and it represents the best hope for utility-scale power from renewable energy and the surest way to get energy-sucking Sun Belt cities off carbon.

It’s also a technology you’ve likely never heard of, given the attention and credits lavished on rooftop photovoltaic kits.
Concentrating solar power, or solar thermal, is a world apart from photovoltaic solar, the world’s fastest-growing energy technology. Rather than use silicon-based panels to chemically convert sunlight to electricity, solar thermal uses mirrors to focus the sun’s rays on pipes carrying oil or other heat-absorbing fluid. Sunlight heats the oil to 500° C or more; hot oil flashes water to steam; steam spins a turbine; the turbine makes juice.

Simple? That’s the attraction.

“We’re going to see a lot more of these,” said Hanis, the solar association spokeswoman.
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Sipala,
Bruce

Tech firm SUNRGI says its “concentrated photovoltaic” system could revolutionize the solar power industry.

By Paul Davidson, USA TODAY
A Silicon Valley start-up says it has developed technology that can deliver solar power in about a year at prices competitive with coal-fired electricity, a milestone that would leapfrog other more established players and turbocharge the fast-growing industry.

SUNRGI’s “concentrated photovoltaic” system relies on lenses to magnify sunlight 2,000 times, letting it produce as much electricity as standard panels with a far smaller system. Craig Goodman, head of the National Energy Marketers Association, is expected to announce the breakthrough Tuesday.

Also pushing down costs are a highly efficient semiconductor that converts 37% of the sunlight to electricity, more than double the industry average. The unit’s compact size allows it to be made at electronics or PC factories, avoiding the need to build new plants.
“Moving from the lab to the market in two years is typically not what happens,” says Stow Walker of Cambridge Energy Research Associates. Yet, he adds, the semiconductor market “moves much more quickly than power technologies.”

Here’s the full article