Posted on 06/08/2014 8:31:40 AM PDT by ckilmer
Ronald Ace, photographed at his home in Laurel, Maryland, May 4, 2013, said his flat-panel "Solar Traps," which can be mounted on rooftops or used in power plants, will shatter barriers that have stymied efforts to make solar energy cheap, clean and reliable. His claimed discoveries, which exist only on paper so far, would represent such a leap that they're sure to draw skepticism.
(Excerpt) Read more at mcclatchydc.com ...
It was widely in use in the south prior to the advent of widespread residential air conditioning. White shingle roofs, white gravel roofs and silver metal roofs were quite common. They're not so common anymore. Dimensional architectural shingles in stylish colors, most not very light in color, are the norm now.
In the past, houses were fitted with awnings, which would deflect most of the sunlight from coming in during summer. After summer, you would take down the awning, and sunlight would be able to come in and keep you warmer in the winter.
Didn’t one of Obama’s EPA guys suggest painting all rooftops and roads white?
It’s thermoelectric rather than photovoltaic, and he claims to utilize a material that neither expands nor contracts due to heat. The electricity comes from the heat rather than the light, and the heat is greatly intensified rather like a parabolic mirror. The heat is passed through the thermoelectric “generator” repeatedly, thereby minimizing or hopefully eliminating waste energy in the form of heat. There are functional thermoelectric units available on the market now, people are attaching them to stove flues and the like. Not very common, not yet, but they’re pretty cheap all things considered and there are so many sources of waste heat to capitalize upon. If you’re unfamiliar, those camp stoves that have a USB port for charging cellphones, tablets and laptops contain a thermoelectric generator that powers a fan to make a hotter, cleaner burn as well as sending electricity to the USB port. One brand is BioLite. He’s just concentrating the heating effect of sunlight upon these generators and claims to have a material that greatly enhances the utility of the heat generated. Does it work? Heck if I know, sounds good but the proof is in the execution.
This “Big Oil” has bought the patents conspiracy makes absolutely no sense.
The patents are public information.
Just build it. NOBODY needs permission to build it.
They would however, need permission to sell it.
If any of these devices worked, there would be hundreds or thousands of them actually working and there would be as many people showing off how they built them and how they work. All for free.
At first I thought his article was written by The Onion. Then I thought it was written by a fool. But then I realized it’s a simple, fact-free “Progressive” propaganda piece.
First, I love how “avert the energy and climate change crises” is stated as a fact, you know, like gravity and the Earth spinning on it axis.
But wait, there’s more! We next follow that premise with a “credible” account of a miracle invention by a crackpot inventor that is still “on paper only”, apparently defies the laws of thermodynamics (you know, like a perpetual motion machine would), but wait, the laws of thermodynamics don’t apply in this particular case after all, the “invention” has some “credence” because ONE other solar researcher says it MIGHT, produces 10 times more energy than current solar panels (which must mean no existing panel is currently more than 10% efficient or we run into that “impossible” issue again), and yet is not just TEN times better, but somehow is also TWENTY times better also.
Whew. OK, I could go on, but got tired. Still, I think you see my drift here.
Thermoelectric “generator” units create electricity due to temperature differential. Hot on one side cold on the other, etc.
They exist, and are cheaper and far more reliable over time than solar panels. There appears to be little to fail, they’re mostly ceramic from what I can tell.
If this guy’s efforts end up creating a solar thermoelectric device that’s cheaper and more reliable than a solar panel as well as producing more electricity, it’s a good thing in my mind, whether or not the theoretically ultra-efficient nature of the invention pans out fully or turns out to be exaggerated.
Obama and his globalist Saudi royal masters will never permit it.
You should plant a large tree by that window. Almost all our exterior area is covered by shadows due to the many trees so only a small area is hit by sunlight. It makes a big difference.
Design a nice-looking trellis to put up a few feet away from that window. Plant a fast-growing leafy vine, hopefully one that blooms for aesthetic value, to cover it in summer months. Cut it back and let the sun in, in cooler months. Deciduous trees will do the same thing, but it takes a whole lot longer to shade the whole side of a house than a vine.
“The ultimate design specification is “DOE development grant. “”
You are behind the times. The new ‘design specification’ is “Crowd Funding”.
Amorphous is really cheap to make, Crystalline is what you usually see and the Triple Junction is very expensive and seen in research environments.
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In your post 11 you emphatically state “oil oligarchy, which has bought up and sequestered literally hundreds of patents “. Now which is it, big oil or big gubmit?
Somehow your switcheroo when questioned, lends little confidence in your conspiracy claim.
National security could be a legitimate reason, but without knowing which patents were hidden, its hard to know.
“Does it work? Heck if I know, sounds good but the proof is in the execution.”
Thermoelectric has a very low efficiency. He is claiming near 100%.
He’s “recycling” intense heat created by concentrating sunlight. If you had a means of getting to the temps cited, what was it, 2400 degrees, and cooling fins on the other side or outside to create a large temperature differential, I suspect the efficiency would increase substantially.
Inefficient as existing thermoelectric units are, they’re still cheaper than solar photovoltaics. I just don’t know of many who have commercialized the things yet, not for specific use in generating residential electricity. They’re chiefly known from those camp stoves as I mentioned. Outside of that, you’ve got inventors and tinkerers who appear not to be well funded selling them to order in low volume.
Patents grant rights because the invention will become known and imitated. Developers don’t live in a vacuum, parallel researchers will be on to it in a few years regardless of imposed secrecy.
Can anyone think of an economically advantageous invention that remained a secret? (Aside from the current conspiracies, of course).
“He’s “recycling” intense heat created by concentrating sunlight.”
Uh huh. Sort of a perpetual motion machine?
“Inefficient as existing thermoelectric units are, they’re still cheaper than solar photovoltaics. I just don’t know of many who have commercialized the things yet, not for specific use in generating residential electricity. They’re chiefly known from those camp stoves as I mentioned. Outside of that, you’ve got inventors and tinkerers who appear not to be well funded selling them to order in low volume.”
They are used in remote locations where reliable generation is required.
Sounds more like a snowballing effect to get to a higher temperature, to me.
I’ve played around with the idea of an “array” like a sleeve over a flue from a wood stove. You’d need a ventilated cavity within a chimney surrounding the flue and “array” in order to create the necessary temperature differential. The stove would need to be fired up at all times for electricity. That led to wood cookstove and an area that could be converted into a “summer kitchen” on a screened porch of sorts. Retractable walls could be as simple as insulated garage doors. If the heat could come from concentrated sunlight in warmer months, that problem goes away, but the flue would get *way* fancier, lol.
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