WHY NOT: 80%+ of manufacturing and process heat supplied by off the shelf SOLAR hardware... today.

[txlibdem]

Why are we *not* doing this today. All it would cost is for installation... the fuel (the sun) IS FREE!!! And these systems are already proven, and are in use in homes and businesses around the world. Is there too much inertia in the manufacturing and processing industries??? Is it that the CEOs own too much stock in fossil fuels??? You tell me...

"Almost 60 percent of heat demand in Euopean industry could be covered by already available and cost-effective technology using an inexhaustible renewable energy source that has no ecological disadvantages whatsoever."

http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2011/07/solar-powered-factories.html

Several industries could get 100% or over 80% of their entire heat requirements from currently available solar heating systems:



Note that these are stats for European manufacturing... the author of the piece couldn't get the US data. I have no reason to believe it would be any different, however.

Is there a smiley for DUH!!!

[PoliticAverse]

1. Sorry we can't manufacture anything today it's cloudy out. n/t

[NYC_SKP]

5. ..storage.. (nt)

[TheWraith]

6. Storing heat is increddibly lossy.

Also, I'd like to see this information peer reviewed--I have the suspicion that the author is probably using napkin math.

[NYC_SKP]

7. Ah, but the input "fuel" is remarkably abundant.

And quite price-friendly!

:P

[txlibdem]

8. Storing heat is incredibly lossy?

Is that why buildings with zero insulation are really, really cold during winter???

But when you insulate that same building very, very well... guess what?... It's always comfortably warm in the winter.

If you'd like to read the footnotes at the bottom of the link in the OP you are more than welcome to. They disprove your statement.

[msongs]

2. evidently you don't get campaign "contributions" and other perks from oil companies lol nt

[txlibdem]

11. They say that nowadays people only know what they are paid to know... and NO MORE

[valerief]

3. OIL $$$ GAS $$$ OIL $$$ GAS $$$ OIL $$$ GAS, ad infinitum. nt

[txlibdem]

4. Isn't it funny how that works???

... and BS walks...

[Yo_Mama]

9. Why not? Goods too expensive to sell

You can't sell something for 3X when an equivalent product is sold for X, and that's why not.

"Could" does not have anything to do with "affordable".

Sure, sunlight is free. But all the equipment isn't, the transmission and associated infrastructure isn't, and the land required to generate the electricity isn't. Sunlight is free, but it isn't dense and solar power across much of Europe isn't very cost-effective. Then add in the cost of the required storage, and you start to get at the root of the problem.

Germany is a manufacturing powerhouse, but quite a bit of the production has already been relocated to the Eastern bloc outside of Germany in order to take advantage of cost differentials, and that process is already accelerating.

[txlibdem]

10. I think you're confusing Solar PV (electric) with Solar Thermal (heat)

What the article talks about is replacing the process heat that industries use with solar heat, derived by using multiple mirrors shining on a single heat collector. Whenever the sun shines, even if it's slightly cloudy that day, the mirrors are going to CONCENTRATE the heat onto the collector, making it many times as hot as it would normally be or would be with only a single mirror reflecting sunlight onto it.

PS, the equipment is very inexpensive compared to the cost of fossil fuels they currently use to run the industrial equipment that these manufacturers and food processors use. Many of these companies report millions of dollars in fuel costs PER YEAR... and with fossil costs continuing to rise it's not getting any cheaper to stick with the status quo.

PPS, the heat from solar would enter the process chain just as would the heat from fossil fuels. Your post is confusing to read but it seems as though you believe that companies would have to purchase all new equipment when all they need is some heat piping and shut off valves and pressure valves placed in the right spots. Thus, when there is enough sun to generate the needed heat, the fossils are turned off and the heat from the sun is used in its place. When the sun goes down or it's too cloudy either a mixture of the two is used or they just turn the valves so they go back to what they're doing now... helping to ruin the planet by using poisonous, CO2 spewing fossil fuels.

[azul]

12. The realization that we need alternatives is sinking in.

European Banks are refusing to fund new coal plants.

The oil companies are busy painting themselves green in public, but still spreading that oily sheen of corruption and blood and CO2, and the smell they cannot disguise.

[txlibdem]

13. I didn't know that about the European banks, thanks

I wholeheartedly agree with them: zero funding of new coal plants is a sound policy.