But, don't Blue Staters already live in those little world-of-their-own geodesic domes? Let's not waste our Natural Resources, LOL!
Posted on 03/01/2005 7:56:56 AM PST by grundle
Never see it...at least in this decade or the next. If you do, it will cost you an arm and a leg for however they package it.
Awesome!!!! Now all we have to do is eliminate nighttime and cloudiness, and we won't need dirty coal anymore!!!! Wow.
Already posted last month........
Oh yeah...we need one more thing...some State to volunteer to be covered with solar panels. Preferably a sunny one.
This article is more than a bit off. Solar radiation is only a kilowatt per square meter, not inch. When you factor that in the claims appear more than a bit exagerated.
Slashdot covered this a few days ago and there's lots of good solid info here: http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/28/1224245&tid=162&tid=14
Let's cover the BLUE STATES in it........
It said they had some top-notch Indian scientists working on it. They must be damned good to squeeze 120 watts of electricity out of 0.64 watts of solar radiation!
Put them in orbit and call that that problem solved.
A large part of the cost of "real" solar generation is keeping the panels clean. Something they never tell you when they give fresh-out-of-the-box efficiency ratings.
Cleaning usually involves lots of water, something that can be in short supply in places where the sun is out a lot.
Not unless the sun went Super Nova
If we put the panels in orbit, how do we get the electricity down here to the surface? Microwaves? A long wire?
mark to read later
Several points:
1. That's why God made Batteries, or other power storage methods. Personally, I like reversible Fuel cells. . . add power, get hydrogen: need power, burn the hydrogen. . .
2. Coal is too valuable as chemical feedstock to burn as fuel anyway. . .
> This allows a 10x larger surface area of these structures to be used to achieve a 10x increase in efficiency for such thin layers
Ten times more efficient? Well, since PV cells can get to 30% efficiency or more, that means *these* cells get to 300% efficiency! WOW! Where do I invest?
Microwaves.
"Microwaves" is correct.
But, don't Blue Staters already live in those little world-of-their-own geodesic domes? Let's not waste our Natural Resources, LOL!
Well, I'm not sure God made batteries. Flywheels are fairly good at low-tech power storage. Hydrogen storage needs to be solved. Pumped hydro to elevated reservoirs...Compressed air into large caverns. The power storage problem goes on. Interesting though. I agree with you about coal as a feedstock. Personally, I think nuclear fission has the fewest technical issues to overcome, and has a proven track record as well.
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