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Re:World’s Largest Solar Thermal Power Plant Delivers Power ... by xutopia on Wednesday September 25, 2013 @10:13AM (#6444665)
Photovoltaics is more inline with Google's needs because it also offers increased cooling if placed above data centers. Could this be a reason why they favour PV?
Re:World’s Largest Solar Thermal Power Plant Delivers Power ... by fludlight on Wednesday September 25, 2013 @12:50PM (#6445697)
Three reasons why PV works better for rooftop:

1.) Thermal only works on a massive scale. You can't fit 1000 large mirrors, a tower, a huge turbine, and the requisite plumbing on a commercial rooftop.

2.) Even if you could, the city wouldn't let you because the mirrors would distract aviation and anger neighbors.

3.) Technological advances and a capacity glut in PV manufacturing brought the price of panels down so far that it doesn't make economic sense to build thermal anymore.