Reply To: turn heat into electricity

[Brian H]

zapkitty wrote:

You might be surprised. The time freed up from fuel-gathering is often rapidly turned into micro-enterprise by people (notably the women). Markets spring up, cell phones appear and start co-ordinating things, etc.

And a basic 5 MW unit can drive literally thousands of residential/micro-enterprise establishments in such areas.

… a recent theme has been such people using small solar panels to provide lights, cell phone charging etc.

There could be areas where even a single FF unit would be expensive overkill at first but cheaper solar panels produced in FF-powered factories would be an affordable option.

Regardless of panel prices, the installed cost/W of FF is many multiples better. For very small applications, solar has some utility, if backed up with batteries to allow lighting after sunset, etc. See lutw.org for ongoing projects.