<story><title>Photovoltaic Solar Panels (1905)</title><url>https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2021/10/how-to-build-a-low-tech-solar-panel.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>deepdriver</author><text>While we&amp;#x27;re on the subject of low-tech solar energy, what&amp;#x27;s the current state of concentrated solar power (CSP)? The US Department of Energy&amp;#x27;s SunShot initiative continues to invest in both photovoltaics and CSP, such as plants built with parabolic trough collectors. These are mirrors that focus sunlight on a working fluid like water or air, which in turn drives a turbine to generate electric power. One advantage of these systems is the ability to store thermal energy directly in large, relatively cheap batteries for on-demand generation:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.energy.gov&amp;#x2F;eere&amp;#x2F;solar&amp;#x2F;linear-concentrator-system-concentrating-solar-thermal-power-basics&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.energy.gov&amp;#x2F;eere&amp;#x2F;solar&amp;#x2F;linear-concentrator-system...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Crescent Dunes CSP plant in Nevada had a number of stumbles, but appears to be generating power again:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Crescent_Dunes_Solar_Energy_Project&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Crescent_Dunes_Solar_Energy_Pr...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Their solution of storing thermal energy in molten salt isn&amp;#x27;t exactly low-tech, but other CSP systems use cheaper thermal storage materials like sand or basalt, which avoid the geopolitical and environmental problems of lithium extraction. Of course, PV panels can dump power into thermal batteries too. Maybe PV farms with huge thermal batteries of sand or basalt will be the best long-term grid-scale solution.</text></comment>
<story><title>Photovoltaic Solar Panels (1905)</title><url>https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2021/10/how-to-build-a-low-tech-solar-panel.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>philipkglass</author><text>Much of the historical information in this article comes from the September 1909 issue of Modern Electrics magazine in an article called &amp;quot;Harnessing Sunlight.&amp;quot; The HathiTrust has a public scan of it here:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;babel.hathitrust.org&amp;#x2F;cgi&amp;#x2F;pt?id=mdp.39015051407073&amp;amp;view=1up&amp;amp;seq=5&amp;amp;skin=2021&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;babel.hathitrust.org&amp;#x2F;cgi&amp;#x2F;pt?id=mdp.39015051407073&amp;amp;vi...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>