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

[Hurricanelover]

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

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

Researchers in Australia are working on a way to lower the cost of producing solar thermal energy by as much as 40% with the help of shatterproof rear-view mirrors originally designed for cars.

newatlas.com

Researchers in Australia are working on a way to lower the cost of producing solar thermal energy by as much as 40% with the help of shatterproof rear-view mirrors originally designed for cars.

That could be huge for agriculture and industrial facilities which need large amounts of heat for large-scale processes at temperatures between 212 - 754 °F (100 - 400 °C). That addresses food production, drying crops, grain and pulse drying, sterilizing soil and treating wastewater on farms; industrial applications include producing chemicals, making paper, desalinating water, and dyeing textiles.

A quick refresher in case you're out of the loop: solar thermal energy and conventional solar energy (photovoltaic) systems both harvest sunlight, but they work in fundamentally different ways. Solar thermal setups capture the Sun's heat rather than its light, use reflectors to concentrate sunlight onto a receiver, and convert solar radiation directly into heat energy. This heat can be used directly for heating buildings, water, or the aforementioned industrial processes.

Awesome advancement!

 

[toobfreak]

Awesome advancement!

Pretty funny that engineerrs developing solar heating didn't realize there were cheap plastic mirrors available! But no matter as plastic will never hold up sitting out baking in the sun all day.

 

[justoffal]

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

Awesome advancement!

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?

 

[MarathonMike]

A plastic solar panel wouldn't make it through one Arizona summer.

 

[wamose]

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.

 

[Old Rocks]

My 2003 Dodge Caravan has almost 200,000 miles, has sat outside all of it's life, and has two small plastic mirrors that are original equipment. Seems that especially designed plastic mirrors for that purpose would work. And, by the way, the inside of cars in direct sunlight get very hot, and those mirrors still work.

 

[petro]

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.

 

[toobfreak]

My 2003 Dodge Caravan has almost 200,000 miles, has sat outside all of it's life, and has two small plastic mirrors that are original equipment. Seems that especially designed plastic mirrors for that purpose would work. And, by the way, the inside of cars in direct sunlight get very hot, and those mirrors still work.

But the mirrors are not in full direct sun all day long aimed straight into the sunlight like a solar mirror. And the inside of the car gets hot due to trapping of IR radiation, what we are talking about here is not IR energy by UV degradation.

 

[Seymour Flops]

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

Awesome advancement!

Yes, alternative energy sources (alternative to fossil fuels) are the thing of the future. The fairly distant future.

Powering electric vehicles, home heating, and stoves with electricity derived from fossil fuels and believing that the planet will be saved thusly is pretty silly.