‘In desert regions around the world, large parabolic shaped mirrors are beginning to crop up that may finally make solar energy deliver on its promise. What makes them so special from other solar complexes is the device they’re connected to — an updated version of a 19th-century engine that used to pump water to the rooftop storage towers dotting New York City’s skyline. A Stirling engine, no larger than a household washing machine, converts sunlight into electricity six times more efficiently than other technologies in common use. When scientists do the math, the numbers begin to add up. In fact, researchers at Sweden’s Chalmers Institute of Technology estimate that the entire world’s daily consumption of electricity could be supplied by a Stirling solar farm equivalent to 6 percent of the Sahara Desert area.’

via Joel Brokaw: A Global Warming Solution Rises from the Junk Heap?.