Comment Solar Energy - Been looking into this the past few (Score 4, Interesting) 355
years.
One of the major problems of concentrated solar power is the heat - normal photovoltaics would melt. The benefit is that concentrated light also has better efficiency than the normal ~10-22% of normal solar power.
One of the traditional ways around the heat problem wasn't to use a photovoltacic as all. An energy farm in Australia uses dishes to focus the light and at the focal point places a stirling engine, with only the heat powering it.
Interesting stuff. I hope to have my own workable solar power system power my property one of these days.