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Breakthru in Solar Energy?
Thursday, 7 December 2006 15:05This came across the lumsfs yahoogroup:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/06/027228
It claims that a new, advanced solar energy cell achieved a 40% conversion efficiency.
That's astonishing. It is the kind of advance that makes solar energy on any scale a viable energy source in cost and output vs other sources. Huzzah!
I've been waiting for this.
That's my problem with it right now.
This happened a little fast and those articles seem a little too gung ho, and a little too neatly sanitised of practical problems, obstacles to production or other such details.
And while it's nice to get breaking news off of the Internet, I'm worried that regular media doesn't consider a breakthru of this magnitude newsworthy.
Yeah, I know. They only like popular news, but let's face it, they've been burned a LOT by jumping the gun on energy breakthrus.
Remember when the Tokomak Accellerator achieved positive energy return with Hydrogen fusion in the 80's? Viable fusion could make enough electricity to socialise power globally.
I'm still waiting.
Cold fusion:
I'm still waiting.
High temperature (room temperature?) Superconducting motors and generators:
I'm still waiting.
Tapping "Tesla's Free Energy" -basically some wierd scheme involving the natural electromagnetic differential between (Earth) ground and (the rest of the Universe) that Tesla is alleged to have calculated:
I'm still waiting.
Some wanker from GM was on Charlie Rose last week claiming that advanced materials research is on the verge of creating some breakthru schtuff or thneeds that will make automobiles 80% more efficient thru massive weight reduction in the next decade.
I'm not holding my breath.
And now they're promising us Hydrogen. Notice how they're conveniently not telling us where it comes from. If hydrogen comes from water, then any energy you get from burning it has to be expended FIRST to extract it. With ANY conversion process that's less than 100% efficient, (Try ALL OF THEM ,it don't add up. If you extract Hydrogen from water, you're using more energy to extract your fuel than you get by burning it.
Where does that energy come from?
If you extract your Hydrogen from Hydrocarbons, that's better, because you can do it catalytically, but then your EXTRACTION process will produce some kind of waste,
(pollution) and, depending on the hydrocarbon(s) involved, you're again risking getting involved with an upper quantitative limit based on cost and availabilities for your fuel sources. Ammonia is promising, but in order to have a clean reaction it has to purefied from it's source(s) first (more energy cost) and THEN we need to do something with all that waste Nitrogen so that we don't mess up the atmospheric balance AGAIN.
Hydrogen, so far seems like "Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss." at least to me.
They've NOT answered those questions to my satisfaction.
I'm still waiting.
I'm not saying that this new solar cell is vaporware. But the articles are doing an awfully hard sell on it without telling us what the REAL problems are that stand between this prototype and the cost they claim for mass production. We ONLY have the sayso of the spokesdroid, and my bet is that he is a marketing suit and not a scientist or engineer. We don't know yet if this is really a viable device or a custom designed hand raised highly tweaked delicate thoroughbred who can't survive outside it's cage.
I've been waiting for this news, and I've been let down before, so far it's been:
every time.
Where is the credible skeptical media coverage?
And why aren't they cheering?
I'm praying that someone will be calling me soon and saying that Scientific American is publishing an article that says it works and that their breakthru day is now a part of History as Humanity's next quantum leap.
I'm not holding my breath.
Somebody PLEASE prove me wrong.
Really. I don't have a pathological need to be right about this.
Come on. Show me it works and that I'll soon be able to buy a solar array to power the stage at Faerie Fest for less than it costs to buy a car.
I double dog dare you.
Come to New Deal Cafe tonight and argue with me about it after enjoying my show!
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/06/027228
It claims that a new, advanced solar energy cell achieved a 40% conversion efficiency.
That's astonishing. It is the kind of advance that makes solar energy on any scale a viable energy source in cost and output vs other sources. Huzzah!
I've been waiting for this.
That's my problem with it right now.
This happened a little fast and those articles seem a little too gung ho, and a little too neatly sanitised of practical problems, obstacles to production or other such details.
And while it's nice to get breaking news off of the Internet, I'm worried that regular media doesn't consider a breakthru of this magnitude newsworthy.
Yeah, I know. They only like popular news, but let's face it, they've been burned a LOT by jumping the gun on energy breakthrus.
Remember when the Tokomak Accellerator achieved positive energy return with Hydrogen fusion in the 80's? Viable fusion could make enough electricity to socialise power globally.
I'm still waiting.
Cold fusion:
I'm still waiting.
High temperature (room temperature?) Superconducting motors and generators:
I'm still waiting.
Tapping "Tesla's Free Energy" -basically some wierd scheme involving the natural electromagnetic differential between (Earth) ground and (the rest of the Universe) that Tesla is alleged to have calculated:
I'm still waiting.
Some wanker from GM was on Charlie Rose last week claiming that advanced materials research is on the verge of creating some breakthru schtuff or thneeds that will make automobiles 80% more efficient thru massive weight reduction in the next decade.
I'm not holding my breath.
And now they're promising us Hydrogen. Notice how they're conveniently not telling us where it comes from. If hydrogen comes from water, then any energy you get from burning it has to be expended FIRST to extract it. With ANY conversion process that's less than 100% efficient, (Try ALL OF THEM ,it don't add up. If you extract Hydrogen from water, you're using more energy to extract your fuel than you get by burning it.
Where does that energy come from?
If you extract your Hydrogen from Hydrocarbons, that's better, because you can do it catalytically, but then your EXTRACTION process will produce some kind of waste,
(pollution) and, depending on the hydrocarbon(s) involved, you're again risking getting involved with an upper quantitative limit based on cost and availabilities for your fuel sources. Ammonia is promising, but in order to have a clean reaction it has to purefied from it's source(s) first (more energy cost) and THEN we need to do something with all that waste Nitrogen so that we don't mess up the atmospheric balance AGAIN.
Hydrogen, so far seems like "Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss." at least to me.
They've NOT answered those questions to my satisfaction.
I'm still waiting.
I'm not saying that this new solar cell is vaporware. But the articles are doing an awfully hard sell on it without telling us what the REAL problems are that stand between this prototype and the cost they claim for mass production. We ONLY have the sayso of the spokesdroid, and my bet is that he is a marketing suit and not a scientist or engineer. We don't know yet if this is really a viable device or a custom designed hand raised highly tweaked delicate thoroughbred who can't survive outside it's cage.
I've been waiting for this news, and I've been let down before, so far it's been:
every time.
Where is the credible skeptical media coverage?
And why aren't they cheering?
I'm praying that someone will be calling me soon and saying that Scientific American is publishing an article that says it works and that their breakthru day is now a part of History as Humanity's next quantum leap.
I'm not holding my breath.
Somebody PLEASE prove me wrong.
Really. I don't have a pathological need to be right about this.
Come on. Show me it works and that I'll soon be able to buy a solar array to power the stage at Faerie Fest for less than it costs to buy a car.
I double dog dare you.
Come to New Deal Cafe tonight and argue with me about it after enjoying my show!
