As the world transitions to renewable “green†energy, whether voluntarily or otherwise, projects like relocating carbon-intensive fuels from hundreds of miles away and storing them in dedicated underground caverns is what we used to call “gonzo.†This is especially true when salt-gradient solar ponds (SGSPs) could be created at the location of these massive salt deposits on a truly grand scale, allowing conversion of solar heat captured in these ponds to electricity that would be inexpensive and dependable in the extreme. If avoidance of fossil fuels is a value to be pursued and developed, SGSPs constitute an obvious opportunity.
Even Luddites like myself have shelves of papers and studies on salt-gradient solar ponds prepared by mechanical engineering specialists at USU, Weber State University and the University of Utah, supplemented by astonishing expositions of applied solar energy production at places like El Paso, Texas, the Israeli side of the Dead Sea, and even in Tibet and inner China. Give it an internet search, and you’ll see the presentations come tumbling out — but they only work if you assign value to climate change prevention, as opposed to the assigning of indifference to that function. Utah has exercised indifference to domestic genius for half a century, so we’ll not be surprised to see goofy projects like the “Sawtooth Caverns†near Delta receive official support for what amounts to a very reprehensible, dumb alternative, motivated by the universal lubricant, short-term money.