How efficient is solar currently? Doesn't it only make use of less than 10% of the potential energy or is my info out of date?

You reallocate from one part of the budget (say some SJW bullshit) to solve a real problem.

The latest gen solar PV is more efficient than that.

But solar thermal is where it's at.

Solar energy currently has been less efficient from high temp

Basically using parabolic mirrors to heat molten salt, whcih drives a turbine 24/7 (wince the salt doesn't cool overnight).

I work (in a non-technical capacity) in renewable energy research.

high temperature has been killing solar cells efficiency

their peak energy output is apparently like 25 degrees

worked, I should say.

celcius

Solar cells and solar heating are two different things

Solar heating is solar thermal.

It can scale.

And it's potentially cheap.

Solar thermal isn't going to work in cold regions and solar cells are very inefficient, costly technology with a lot of waste

i've only seen solar heating for peoples hot water, and that has its own issues

But Sure.

I'm talking about Australia.

Where solar thermal will certainly work.

Its the classic when the wind blows and the sun does not shine, how are you gonna get power

Solar heating works you’d think the water would come out cold at 70

No it’s near boiling

But it’s harder for cold water

You store it using hydro-batteries.

On that note, it's currently 4am in Australias most populated regions, how did Australia get brought up?

It's likely I'm the only Australian up atm

straya cunt

Lol

And maybe you have some traditional fossil fuel stations (esp. natural gas, which can be turned on and off in less than an hour).

I have interesting sleeping patterns

at this point in the day just call it early riser

I live apparently on exactly the opposite side of the world to Oz.

No, because I'm about to have a few more hours of sleep

Victoria fucked themselves shutting down a coal powerplant and the prices went through the roof

they didnt replace the power that the coal generated

It was dirty and old...

With good planning, that could have been offset.

Not that they shouldn't have shut it down but they needed a replacement at the least

what they do is when you got high load on the grid, the govt pays steel forges and visy, all the high usage companies to shut down

There's a bunch of wind turbines which are surprisingly efficient in Victoria because of the katabatic winds