'Major discovery' from MIT primed to unleash solar revolution

[DanS]

I like nuclear too, but it's taking 6 years for just the application process for the new nuke plants. Assuming that local opposition doesn't slow it down or kill it, then you take another 6 years building it.

The new Calvert Cliffs reactor isn't expected to be operational until 2015 at the earliest, according to the WaPo today.

[Alinestra Covelia]

Does the plant itself need to be near a population concentration to be useful? Presumably countries could place it remotely and then connect it to the grid.

This may be more feasible in countries like China where most of the populace is concentrated in relatively small fertile terrain and the majority of the land area is hinterland. Put the plants where nobody lives and there shouldn't be too much opposition and reduced risk.

[Kuciwalker]

Does the plant itself need to be near a population concentration to be useful?

Actually, yes. Power loss due to resistance on the power cables is significant.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Elok
They can't help it. Giant spinning blades are just irresistibly attractive to avians of all types. They're like the easy hot chick at the party--you know you'll spend the rest of your life snorting penicillin like coke to kill what she gives you, but c'mon, she's HOT!

My understanding is that most wind farms have a lot of open areas which mean food for foraging birds plus birds like to use areas with high winds as flyways since they can coast on the wind instead of flapping their wings off. So the little birdie is coasting a long when he gets pureed by the blades.

There is also a secondary problem that birds of prey and scavengers increase patrols near wind farms looking for dead or wounded birds and often times these protected species also end up pureed.

[Traianvs]

Couldn't birds be scared off by a specific scent only they would notice, or certain colours... I'm just wondering

[Theben]

Years and years ago when the 1st opposition to wind came up, the proposed solution was to put a grate around the blades (like yer desktop fan at home/work). Apparently someone decided $$>dead birds.

[chequita guevara]

The bigger blades don't puree the birds, since they don't need to move as quickly.

[Dinner]

Great then they just break a wing and still end up dead.

[ColdWizard]

We'd better get rid of airplanes and glass windows too. And cats.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Theben


Would that be the NanoSolar I linked on the 1st page?

By George!! That's it!!!

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
I don't entirely understand the massive solar spin here. This is just a massive improvement to battery design - which, yes, helps solar power, but it helps a lot of things besides that.

True.

I thing the solar spin arises from: (a) the fact that the principles of this process were derived from photosynthesis and (b) from solar power's need for a process to store its energy for use during nighttime. So it's more of a psychological nexis than a logical nexis. So you're right to point out this process can be used with any source of electricity.

[Provost Harrison]

So MIT have discovered starch? I've been using it to stiffen my collars for years

[Provost Harrison]

I have to agree with Oerdin though. Sunlight may be free, but collecting it certainly isn't...and quite frankly the manufacturing of solar cells and fuel cells is a damn messy process. And then we are talking enzymes for the harvesting of this energy. Tell me people, how long does an enzyme last without denaturing? And thus how often would these solar cells need to be replaced? One of the reasons that we have such effective protein synthesis in cells is because proteins (especially enzymes) have this annoying knack of denaturing or being poisoned.

[Zkribbler]

As Kuci points out, the OP article isn't about solar. It's about converting electricity into cheap hydrogen and oxygen.

If you want to see a discussion of cheap solar, follow Theban's link to NanoSolar.com. Their new process costs less that 1/3 that of coal. They're building two huge factories (one in California; one near Berlin) because in 2007, they'd already sold everything they could make in 2008.

The sun is rising on solar power.

[Heraclitus]

Nuclear is the future.


If humanity has a future that is.