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Solar panel made with ion cannon is cheap enough to challenge fossil fuels
51–60 of 161 posts
Re: Solar panel made with ion cannon is cheap enough to challenge fossil fuels
#52That is some amazing technology right there, almost fun to read because it sounds like science fiction but it's real. And privately designed/built/owned particle accelerators? It's definitely a new era. What if one day the other side of the globe getting sunlight powered the grid for the other half? Of course this would require very peaceful nations on each continent, so even if we had the cost-effective technology n…
I agree the particle accelerator is pretty cool, of course transporting power around the globe is not as easy as stringing a wire, for every mile of wire you lose power due to the resistance of the wire. This is the problem of 'power transmission'. This is the same reason you can't build nuclear power plants in the middle of a desert 500 miles from anywhere and ship the power out sadly.
That being said, at .40/watt you can cover a lot of rooftops economically and that means that you cut the top off the 'peak' usage for a city or town. Cutting that peak off is a huge win because often power companies have fossil fuel plants (called 'peaker plants') which they bring online only during peak power requirements.
The cool thing about having the buildings support the power load is you get a benefit of not transporting it very far (few losses due to power line resistance). And yes, even on the most overcast day solar panels generate power. The ones on my roof in California can generate nearly 50% of their best days on overcast days. That does not hold though for panels covered in snow so there is some requirement to keep them clean.
Re: Solar panel made with ion cannon is cheap enough to challenge fossil fuels
#53That is some amazing technology right there, almost fun to read because it sounds like science fiction but it's real. And privately designed/built/owned particle accelerators? It's definitely a new era. What if one day the other side of the globe getting sunlight powered the grid for the other half? Of course this would require very peaceful nations on each continent, so even if we had the cost-effective technology n…
Hydrogen fuel cells powered up by cheap solar panels will be our future power source. No need to transmit electricity across the globe.
Re: Solar panel made with ion cannon is cheap enough to challenge fossil fuels
#54That is some amazing technology right there, almost fun to read because it sounds like science fiction but it's real. And privately designed/built/owned particle accelerators? It's definitely a new era. What if one day the other side of the globe getting sunlight powered the grid for the other half? Of course this would require very peaceful nations on each continent, so even if we had the cost-effective technology n…
I agree the particle accelerator is pretty cool, of course transporting power around the globe is not as easy as stringing a wire, for every mile of wire you lose power due to the resistance of the wire. This is the problem of 'power transmission'. This is the same reason you can't build nuclear power plants in the middle of a desert 500 miles from anywhere and ship the power out sadly. That being said, at .40/watt y…
We can build power plants in the middle of the desert and ship power out. The technology exists; we just haven't done it yet. Transmission losses are not a concern for superconducting cables (though maintaining the cryostat jacket is). Such cables are currently being proven before being used in larger grid connections.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/the-smarter-grid/superconduc...
http://www.htstriax.com/columbus.html
http://www.ornl.gov/sci/htsc/documents/pdf/fy2003/HTS_Cable_...
Re: Solar panel made with ion cannon is cheap enough to challenge fossil fuels
#55I think I may have misunderstood the manufacturing process. To my reading, it looks like they have 3mm-thick wafers, accumulate a 20mm-thick layer of hydrogen, which then shears off in a furnace, leaving...a 3mm-thick wafer. Which they started with. Thanks in advance to whoever explains how I've misunderstood this.
EDIT: Oh, I neglected to pay attention to units. The above should be 3mm, 20-micrometer, and 2.98mm, respectively, which means the sheet shearing off is 0.002mm thick. This is seriously cool. Thanks for everyone's patience.
Re: Solar panel made with ion cannon is cheap enough to challenge fossil fuels
#56This is why I welcomed the backlash and even some of the sensationalism regarding the nuclear explosion in Japan. Even if I realize that nuclear energy could be safe and it's good to have an alternative that is cheap enough to compete with coal, I'd still wish we'd spend all those billions switching from nuclear and putting most of them into renewable energy technologies, which should be the future. The arguments aga…
The idea that solar, wind and geothermal energy can replace nuclear power for electricity generation in my lifetime (the next 35 years) ignores the reality of how much electricity we consume and how it is currently generated. Here's a link to a graph created by the Lawrence Livermore Lab that quickly illustrates the miniscule impact of doubling, tripling, or even quadrupling the three primary alternative energy sourc…
Stop thinking linearly. Both the amount of solar energy per dollar, and the total global amount of power generated by solar panels is increasing at an exponential rate.
Re: Solar panel made with ion cannon is cheap enough to challenge fossil fuels
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
Transportation of electricity around the globe is not neccessary. Electricity usage is considerably lower during nighttime. Thus solar and wind fit in with our natural rhythm quite nicely. And it is also produced near the place there it is being consumed. Another plus. But still the author is right, we need ways to store electricity and we will also need a much more flexible grid than the one we have today. The neo l…
Store electricity like this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turlough_Hill - pump the water uphill during daylight and let it flow down when needed.
Germany has a plan to use Norway as a huge energy store, adding pumping capacity to the hydroelectric plants.
Re: Solar panel made with ion cannon is cheap enough to challenge fossil fuels
#58I think I may have misunderstood the manufacturing process. To my reading, it looks like they have 3mm-thick wafers, accumulate a 20mm-thick layer of hydrogen, which then shears off in a furnace, leaving...a 3mm-thick wafer. Which they started with. Thanks in advance to whoever explains how I've misunderstood this. EDIT: Oh, I neglected to pay attention to units. The above should be 3mm, 20- micrometer , and 2.98mm,…
Exactly, the point is that the 20micron-layer of silicon that was shearing off is now the solar cell. Compare that to 200micron sheets, as used currently, and you see where the savings come from (i.e. you can get up to 10x more solar cells from a standard waver).
I hope this helps.
Re: Solar panel made with ion cannon is cheap enough to challenge fossil fuels
#59I think I may have misunderstood the manufacturing process. To my reading, it looks like they have 3mm-thick wafers, accumulate a 20mm-thick layer of hydrogen, which then shears off in a furnace, leaving...a 3mm-thick wafer. Which they started with. Thanks in advance to whoever explains how I've misunderstood this. EDIT: Oh, I neglected to pay attention to units. The above should be 3mm, 20- micrometer , and 2.98mm,…
They must have meant 20 micrometer thick layers since they also state that they are "a tenth of the thickness" of standard "200-micrometer-thick (0.2mm)" wafers.
Re: Solar panel made with ion cannon is cheap enough to challenge fossil fuels
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Thus solar and wind fit in with our natural rhythm quite nicely. It's not that nice, because power output from wind/solar plants is random (depends on things like cloud cover or wind strength) and it causes problems in power grid, where power demand must meet the supply exactly, or bad things will happen. "Without Hot Air"[1] covers this, and other renewable-related issues quite nicely and with real data. I recomme…
power output from wind/solar plants is random (depends on things like cloud cover ...) and it causes problems in power grid, where power demand must meet the supply exactly The biggest power cost for us in warmer climates is cooling. When the sun is out, we need lots of power; when it's not, not so much. Solar power sufficient to run A/C from rooftop panels costing less than grid electricity would be wonderful, linin…
I would start with better home design and energy efficiency enhancing improvements before throwing a Carnot-limited solution at the problem.
Last summer I ran an experiment. We live in a two story house in California. We usually see low temperatures at night (sub 70deg F) and highs in the range of 105+ degF during the day. At night I opened all of the windows downstairs and used a small industrial fan (about 2000CFM) to pump cold outside air into the house. In the morning I'd shut down the fan and close all windows.
I could get the lower part of the house down to below 70F on most days during the summer. Cold enough to have to wear a sweater. Even with the outside temperature hitting highs above 105+ the thermal mass of the house succeeded in maintaining a very comfortable inside temperature (max around 77F). We did not use the air conditioner at all last summer, saving tons of money. The fan costs pennies a day to run.
This summer I am looking at what efficiency improvements I can make to this arrangement. I'm itching to throw a micro-controller at it, but I want to learn a little more before I take that path. There's a lot to do in the roof. Think about it, you have this huge solar heat collector --the roof-- reaching ridiculous temperatures during the day and radiating that right into the house. Sure, there's attic insulation, but that's a ton of energy to deal with.
I'm thinking that some forced ventilation of the attic with a small fan might just do wonders.