Lightweight plastic mirrors drop cost of solar thermal energy by 40%

[petro]

Well, it simply looks like fossil carbon energy has the highest cost by far.

That one I am willing to pay to fill my V8.

 

[Captain Caveman]

Even Lithium has its limit -

How much energy can a battery hold?

If your smartphone struggles to make it through the day, you may have wondered why we can’t pack even more juice into a palm-sized...

cordis.europa.eu

 

[Woodznutz]

Yay!
More micro plastics to get into the environment and our bodies.

There's your "Green" tradeoff.
Every form of energy has an environmental cost.
No free rides.

Not true. No downside to 'garden hose' solar hot water.

 

[elektra]

Not true. No downside to 'garden hose' solar hot water.

Yes there is. My house had a solar hot water heater. From fall to almost the end of spring I got zero hot water. None, and that is on sunny southern california

 

[elektra]

Lightweight plastic mirrors drop cost of solar thermal energy by 40%

Your title should be, Solar reliant on oil, gas, and coal for plastics.

 

[JohnDB]

Look,
I know people get all excited by new tech that seems magical.

Watch this video.

The "distilled" liquid? It's gasoline.
That's literally how EASY and simple it is to make.

When new tech can compete with this bumpkin....ok I'll look at it. Until then.....nope!




This is why prices of petroleum products are artificial at best. Those crying about its use? Ummm....yeah. they are a special kind of stupid.

 

[Woodznutz]

Look,
I know people get all excited by new tech that seems magical.

Watch this video.

The "distilled" liquid? It's gasoline.
That's literally how EASY and simple it is to make.

When new tech can compete with this bumpkin....ok I'll look at it. Until then.....nope!




This is why prices of petroleum products are artificial at best. Those crying about its use? Ummm....yeah. they are a special kind of stupid.

So that's how they make "Bull Crete".

 

[JohnDB]

So that's how they make "Bull Crete".

View attachment 1122487

It is really that easy....both for simple gasoline and tar.

Getting through the EPA?
That's the difficult part.

 

[Woodznutz]

It is really that easy....both for simple gasoline and tar.

Getting through the EPA?
That's the difficult part.

I use a lot of that stuff to patch our apartment building's parking lot. Just did one yesterday, a 'six bagger'. Larger patches needed as well. I'll probably use forty or more bags before I'm through. Hard work but I love doing it.

 

[JohnDB]

I use a lot of that stuff to patch our apartment building's parking lot. Just did one yesterday, a 'six bagger'.

A lot of the petroleum here in the USA comes from the gulf region. And it usually has a lot of ground water in it that has to be separated off before it can be refined.

And guess what the EPA wants done to that water?

 

[Woodznutz]

A lot of the petroleum here in the USA comes from the gulf region. And it usually has a lot of ground water in it that has to be separated off before it can be refined.

And guess what the EPA wants done to that water?

Tell me.

 

[JohnDB]

Tell me.

You can't just dump it out on the ground it came from. That WOULD be wrong.....

It has to be purified and contaminants removed.

 

[Woodznutz]

You can't just dump it out on the ground it came from. That WOULD be wrong.....

It has to be purified and contaminants removed.

What happens to the contaminants?

 

[JohnDB]

What happens to the contaminants?

Believe it or not....
SOME of those contaminants have a market.

Petroleum industry is hand-in-glove with the chemical industry. . We use those various chemicals (arsenic, acids, lead compounds and etc) for various chemical processes. Although it's difficult to sell those compounds here unless industry picks back up.
From what was told to me it almost breaks even financially depending upon what's there....every well has different compounds and chemicals in it that can be refined out. Both from the water and the Petroleum.

 

[justoffal]

I remember getting pissed off at pay phones that robbed my money and I punished a few of them, but you could never put a mark on one of them. That plastic was indestructible.

Yeah whatever that stuff was made out of auto bodies should have been made out of the same.
I can remember exactly what you're talking about. Lol

 

[Dekster]

Lightweight plastic mirrors drop cost of solar thermal energy by 40%
By Abhimanyu Ghoshal
May 18, 2025

Awesome advancement!

You say "Awesome Advancement"; I say now they will be stealing my mirrors too when they are taking the catalytic converters.

 

[hondo 50]

Sure thing.

 

[Carl in Michigan]

Plastic???? Do you have any idea how hot those mirrors get? I wish them luck... but plastic???
Kind of like building a brick wall out of sugar cubes isn't it?

The mirrors that REFLECT 99.9% of the energy hitting them? These are not black solar panels

 

[Old Rocks]

Yes there is. My house had a solar hot water heater. From fall to almost the end of spring I got zero hot water. None, and that is on sunny southern california

The people we bought a house from in Tacoma, Washington has a slightly inclined to the north roof. They had three 4 foot by 16 foot solar water panels on it. They left for a weekend and turned on the pump to heat their 12 by 16 doughboy swimming pool, this was March. When they came back, the pool was too hot to swim in. They then installed a temperature control. Quite obviously your installation has something wrong with it.

 

[Old Rocks]

Even Lithium has its limit -

How much energy can a battery hold?

If your smartphone struggles to make it through the day, you may have wondered why we can’t pack even more juice into a palm-sized...

cordis.europa.eu

Depends on what kind of lithium battery you are talking about. Also, there are other batteries coming on the market now that promise far higher energy density. Some of them high enough to power aircraft.