How Mirrors Could Solve our Energy Problem

There is also some potential benefit for industrial process that need heat. Smelting steel and aluminum comes to mind. Using a 20% efficient generator like a solar panel to supply electricity to a 100% efficient resistor to heat up raw materials is not efficient as a 40% efficient direct thermal process that you could realistically achieve with CSP. We aren't there yet in terms of achieving the temperatures needed, and we don't know how efficient we can get yet, but in the long term steel production may be a carbon sink, not a source.