Whorled View

The cost of Solar Thermal electricity is half the cost of Solar PV, and expected to be 1/4 of the cost of Solar PV within the next 10 years. This has been true for dozens of years, but producing solar thermal as a business has never been as lucrative as solar PV because it can only be done in huge installations, so it’s been ignored relatively speaking. Solar PV has always received the bulk of government subsidies by far - largely because of lobbying power of big businesses and because it’s easier to sell Solar PV to consumers (rooftop panels) than Solar Thermal to power companies (giant solar farms). That’s finally changing. Power companies and the Congressmen who get funding for green energy are finally getting wise. As such some major Solar Thermal plants are in the works, and Acciona expects that by 1017 more electricity will be generated by Solar Thermal plants than all the Solar PV panels in the United States combined (including the one on your solar calculator). That’s cool. Read more about it here.