As I sit here at my computer in the great state of Alabamastan, it's
47°F, damp and cloudy outside and not a very good day for solar power. When I lived and worked out in the middle of The Pacific Ocean, the days were warm and sunny and great for solar power. Ways of storing the free energy from the sun will have to mature before it will work for everyone. I'm all for energy storage systems but would like to see a way to store the actual concentrated heat that can be produced by solar power. Perhaps super insulated tanks of molten salts would work. I like the systems in use in places where underground ice banks are used to help cool building in warmer months. The ice banks are frozen during the winter months and used as a heat sink for air conditioning during hot weather. I don't see why heat energy from the sun couldn't be stored in the same way and used as a source of heat for buildings or for heat to produce electricity. O_oTDD