Desserts and Large Magnifying glass??

[traveler]

Can anyone tell me why focusing the Sun's light energy with a large magnifying lense is not a popular idea to generate heat and thus electrical power.  I mean we have cloudless desserts all over this planet that could supply an almost constant stream of light during the day to generate heat.  I just don't get why generating electricity with "wind" would be more a popular or effective idea than generating electricity from a focused beam of light from the Sun???  Why can't we continue to use our conventional coal fired power systems to generate power at night but use the Sun fired plants to "kick in" during the day??

[lltfdaniel1]

http://www.stirlingenergy.com/whatisastirlingengine.htm

[CLaNZeR]

There are setups around the world that do focus the sun with mirrors and it works well, so like yourself I do not understand why more investment is not used.

You could make your own little stirling engine and replace the candle with focused sunlight.

http://rimstar.org/sdenergy/stirling/canstirling1/canstirling1.htm

This one runs with heat from your hand.
http://travel.howstuffworks.com/stirling-engine2.htm

Regards

Sean.