article thumbnail

Thermal Solar Goes Where PVs Can’t

Cars That Think

Leading the boom is the photovoltaic (PV) panel, which converts sunlight into electricity using semiconductors. Inside the tower, molten salts are heated to 565 °C and flow down into storage tanks, turning water into steam to drive turbines. The first utility-scale solar-thermal plants were built in the 1980s. It's flexible.

article thumbnail

Thermal Solar Goes Where PVs Can’t

Cars That Think

Leading the boom is the photovoltaic (PV) panel, which converts sunlight into electricity using semiconductors. Inside the tower, molten salts are heated to 565 °C and flow down into storage tanks, turning water into steam to drive turbines. The first utility-scale solar-thermal plants were built in the 1980s. It's flexible.

article thumbnail

Engineers Are Working on a Solar Microgrid to Outlast Lunar Nights

Cars That Think

The lunar habitat will include a living unit as well as a mining and processing center that will produce water, oxygen, rocket fuel, and more. Like a gearbox converts from one speed and torque value to another, power electronics can convert from one power and voltage level to another.”

Solar 104
article thumbnail

A closer look at why heat pumps are dominating EV HVAC systems

Charged EVs

If you want to heat up a space that is cold, there are a number of options, from burning a fuel to directly converting electricity into heat (i.e. To convert between the two, the ratio is 1 W = 3.412 BTU / hr. A at 115 VAC, or 586 W, which works out to a COP of 3.0

article thumbnail

DOE announces more than $65M in public and private funding to commercialize promising energy technologies

Green Car Congress

High-Power Oak Ridge Converter (ORC) for Extreme Fast Charging (XFC) Applications, $750,000. Mesofluidic Inline Separation for Produced Water Treatment, $246,979. Alkaline Water Electrolysis, $100,000. Array Technologies (Albuquerque, New Mexico). Power Converters and Components for Resilient MVDC Microgrids, $299,754.

article thumbnail

US DOE Awarding Up To $62M for Concentrating Solar Power Research and Development

Green Car Congress

Higher temperature storage has a direct impact upon the amount of energy that can be extracted and converted into electricity, and is an essential component for CSP plants to become competitive with coal-burning plants. Albuquerque, NM – up to $4.3 SkyFuel, Inc.

Solar 240