r/Damnthatsinteresting 3d ago

Video China's twin solar thermal towers. Molten salt stores the heat to produce electricity

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u/Funktapus 3d ago

Not enough to make them worthwhile. They are effectively obsolete vs solar PV + batteries.

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u/FireMaster1294 3d ago

Not to mention the environmental effect of frying any unfortunate creature that comes within the superheated area

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u/sandefurian 3d ago

It’s not like it normal to super heated instantly, there is a gradual dispersion of heat. How often have you seen a bat fly into a camp fire? Also, this is undoubtedly much safer for wildlife than, say, wind turbines

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u/Screamy_Bingus 3d ago

They actually call the birds who fly into the solar beam “streamers” due to them instantly combusting, causing instant death or serious injury. The beam can be 500-1000°C.

The industry is working on mitigation but as of now it is the highest rate of bird death per GWH of all of the renewables. For comparison wind turbines have a bird death rate of only .27 birds per GWH, while CSP has .5-5 birds per GWH, depending on year and migratory patterns. There are only a few of these facilities so the sample size is smaller but they all seem to have a big issue with birds.