Posted on 03/18/2018 9:10:42 AM PDT by rktman
A new book, Taming the Sun: Innovations to Harness Solar Energy and Power the Planet, is available from MIT Press. The book touts the wonders of solar energy and tells us that there is an urgent need to invest trillions in more solar energy. The book is filled with outright errors. The author, Varun Sivaram, has a boundless faith in technical progress that he thinks will make solar cheaper and more practical
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
I don’t buy the hype about solar electricity nor should anyone who can rationally look at some technology and analyze it on a cost/benefit basis.
However, technology is growing at a pace far beyond our ability to comprehend it in a macro sense. The sun is a massive power plant and our ability to harness it will grow with our ability to collect and store energy. Sadly, our government subsidies have gone towards existing technology that has severe limitations and often does not approach a 25% return on the dollar. It is only one part of the energy pie that has received more hype and funding than it warrants at the moment, but it will get better.
Assuming we remain a free and prosperous society and given the economic growth in other parts of the world there is little doubt that newer technologies will emerge that may be worth consideration for those along the equator and perhaps a little further from it.
Every analysis of power sourcing should include a factor of independence. There’s great value in operating without monthly payments or risk of shutdowns beyond your control.
A small stream of water can be channeled into a pipe which then runs downhill. A narrowing of the pipe will cause the water pressure inside the pipe to increase. When the water then sprays onto a fly wheel connected to an electric generator you get clean electricity. Look up micro-hydro electric power and discover that any community with hills and rain will be able to achieve hydro electric power. And that is 24 hours per day. Just as long as it keeps raining and the streams keep flowing.
The basic physics of the atmosphere absorption of light allow (on average over the full year) effective energy to be collected only 6 hours a day. Thus, you 4x the collection modules to store enough power to use the 18 hours a day that there is input solar power.
My research grants are drying up. Quick I need more money
Pelton Wheel.
Too bad I live in the high desert. Not much in the way of flowing water, but plenty of sunshine...
Not plastic, but storage. ...
Both are remote and not that heavily populated and both enjoy lots and *lots* of sunshine,a point made even more important by the fact that they're both fairly close to the Equator.
Northern North America? Most of Europe? Northern Asia? Don't make me laugh.
Solar works very well in the southwest U.S.
Wind power is sun power. Wind is caused by the uneven heating of the earth's surface by the sun.
Solar power works - in space. Using a set of panels, in geosynchronous orbit above the earth, at all times above the weather, and using a microwave transmission beam to direct the power back to an earth station, MIGHT be a way to make solar power reliable at last. Otherwise its purpose is pretty much confined to niche application, like mountaintop locations where the construction of transmission lines is out of the question. Solar power is not produced in sufficient quantity to be able to punch through thousands of miles of interlocked high-tension lines, and night does fall on every part of the earth.
There are artificial financial forces making that so.
1. Federal/State rebates significantly subsidize/reduce the initial cost of a solar power system.
2. State/Local laws force the power companies to allow you to use their grid as a virtual battery, feeding the grid during overproduction hours and drawing that power back later (AKA Net Metering). Adding your own battery system with sufficient power to go off the grid will more than double the cost of the system and wear out far before the panels.
3. Artificially high power prices that allow solar to compete. Solar is great in SoCal, but try financially justifying solar in Texas, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico or Oklahoma, where power costs are at least 50% lower.
I live in SoCal, and my solar system pays 100% + of my SDG&E bill (they pay me every year at true-up), which was previously over $300/month average. Anyone considering solar needs to do the math and decide based on that. Also, beware of leased systems!
Hopefully, future solar/battery technology will make solar financially competitive without items 1-3 above.
Space solar power is getting more viable through Spacex’s efforts to bring down launch costs.
Then you would need a moonbeam for the night time! We here in commiefornia have one so we should be just fine!
About the same here, Weather Chanel reported 18° here, our thermometer said 8.5°. Half this storm’s accumulation is already gone, some melt, but mostly sublimated.
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