Green Engineering: Solar thermal technology heats up

SAN FRANCISCO — A National Renewal Energy Laboratory "irradiance" map showing available sunlight around the world suggests the United States is the Saudi Arabia of solar energy, with twice the irradiance of Europe. It's a picture worth a thousand words to solar activists looking to make a convincing case for the emerging energy source. Harnessing global sun power "is just an engineering effort," said Werner Koldehoff of the German Solar Industry Association. Koldehoff's group and other European solar enthusiasts have come to America to make the case for solar thermal technology, an alternative to photovoltaics that attempts to harness the efficient phase change from water to steam. For cost and technology reasons, solar thermal is emerging as the preferred alternative energy technology in the race to replace fossil fuels with... [read full story]