Solar energy

[IDMclean]

Ok a few things real quick about solar... Most of the people here are thinking on one side of the planet.

 

Imagine for a moment an array of solar which wound around the world's equator. No matter what that array would be exposed, somewhere, to sunlight.

 

Now lets apply this. If each area that is in sunlight contributes a given ammount of power to the overall grid then, we have a sustainable, consistent, power grid.

 

As for adjustment so that solar panels face the sun at all times. No need to have powered adjusters. We are looking to absorb power, not use it in generation... So how about those nifty solar heated tracker mechanisms. Supersimple tracker

 

So I've heard of using the Sahara as a main power base, which seems reasonable to me. Inadditions to that, if the goverment subsidized, as they do for oil and coal, the cost to get the inferstructure up, the average house hold has 300 + square meters of area... that really does nothing.

 

As for the tidal solution. It's a great idea for two reasons. One is tidal power. Two is solar power potentials. Once again we end up with allot of surface area that is otherwise unused.

 

Now for nuclear ideation. Nuclear power is far from efficent by my Engineering standard. Like car engines (something like maybe 20% efficency, maybe), Nuclear power plants waste allot more energy than they collect.

 

We only produce power of them in the form of steam engines. We do not make use of every output they have. Allot more power is lost than is gained.

 

The tether. Magnetic fields do not transfer Energy, they produce torque(is that right?). A magnetic tether line can produce ample ammounts of power, and can when combined with a secondary source be used to produce orbit "hopping" capabilities, in theory. As to get the satelite to jump orbit, all you have to do is produce enough of a magnetic field, reverse wise through the cable to get it to jump higher. I am fairly certain that is how it all works, though I am admittedly Naive-Physics (self taught that is).

 

Now for power transmission? Microwaves, Radio-Frequency, x-ray and gamma are the only frequency bands that I immediately recognize as possible carriers, unless I missed something while reading through all this. The problem with Power transmission Wirelessly is that it creates large "no-fly" zones. Also has accident hazards associated with it. Not to say it's impossible... but.

 

Also another power source, which is somewhat obvious though not often thought about is the earth itself. Where do you think lightning comes from? Tesla had an idea to tap the Geo-dynamo (what I think is more likely to be Geo-reactor) via Ionosphere conduits. Where one creates an ionizing conduit via Ultra-violet Radiation up into the Ionophere and then collect the resulting Lightning bolt(s) into a battery or so. His originial idea involved a large spot light, which could be refined with a decently sized/powered Laser.

 

I believe it was the Wardenclyffe Tower which was the beginning of this idea.

 

Tesla is my favorite Scientist/Engineer for many reasons and the vision of free power was one of the major selling points.

[learnin to learn]

kissassclown, I could not have said it better myself!

whats your opinion on geothermal power?

[Michaelangelica]

whats your opinion on geothermal power?

The New Zealanders use it along with sheep-power. Enough said.

[learnin to learn]

lol sheep-power?

[Michaelangelica]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/18/BUGU0KDCCV350.DTL

]San Francisco Chronicle

[/b]

German approach might energize solar industry

Applied Materials enters market with acquisition in July

 

Tom Abate, Chronicle Staff Writer

 

Friday, August 18, 2006

 

Joachim Nell (left) and Michael Treutel are from Applied ... Solar Energy, used at this home in Berkeley, is drawing m....

 

Is the sun finally ready to shine on the solar industry?

 

That question is getting asked more often in clean energy circles these days, in part because Applied Materials Inc. -- the Santa Clara company best known for selling the tools that make computer chips -- recently tiptoed into solar energy manufacturing.

 

For decades solar cells have lived in the shadow of their close cousins, computer chips. Both are semiconductors -- devices that can be induced to either block or conduct electricity.

 

But while computer chips are now so cheap they're everywhere, solar cells generally remain too costly to install without some form of subsidy.

 

As the pre-eminent developer of chip manufacturing systems, Applied Materials certainly shares the credit for driving down chip prices. So when it recently acquired a solar manufacturing process developed in Germany, astute observers took note.

 

"This provides credibility for the (solar) industry," San Francisco investment banker Neal Dikeman wrote in the Cleantech blog.

 

Observers say Applied Materials may see an opportunity to enter the market for developing tools to create a potentially cheaper type of solar module by spraying a thin layer of silicon onto glass, an approach sometimes called thin-film solar.

 

Although thin-film solar isn't new, the German approach offers promising refinements that could make this process more competitive with the more common practice of using slices of silicon -- called crystalline solar -- to convert sunlight into electricity.

 

Interest in thin-film solar has been on the rise recently owing to price increases in the most commonly used semiconductor material, silicon. Whether this new process, now backed by Applied Materials, accelerates cost reduction and ultimately a wider adoption of solar power remains to be seen. But this development is indicative of the current ferment in solar, as rising oil prices and global warming worries fuel a range of approaches to making the cheapest system that can suck the most power out of sunlight.

 

Applied's solar gambit offers lessons on innovation, starting with how subsidies -- in this case paid by the German government to scientists in that country -- spur developments.

 

"Everybody is convinced (subsidies) created the solar industry (in Germany)," said Joachim Nell, one of the technologists who developed the production system now owned by Applied Materials.

 

Showing the process

etc more at the site

[JimmieKeyes]

Well,

Michalangelica (whew) from here on in it'll be Mag if you don't mind. I have a daughter in NZ Hamilton and your post makes us all want to run out and buy stock. Any more news on this front? Your post is truly interesting since (I don't have to tell you this) the two major problems with solar are price and storage.

If this company can produce machines to make solar collectors competitive it will be a very good investment. I assume it is a public one?

J

[hallenrm]

Just wondering why this thread is located in the forum on computer science, and no moderator or administrator ever cared to move it to the appropriate forum! :)

[Michaelangelica]

If this company can produce machines to make solar collectors competitive it will be a very good investment. I assume it is a public one?

J

Yes here is some info

http://www.appliedmaterials.com/

Looks like they are buying back their own stock.

 

It does not look like a small company:-

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/snapshots/116.html

They are in the semi-conductor business which is logical

Latest stock market info

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=AMAT

They even have a (very interesting) enty in Wikepedia!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_Materials

, Applied Materials went public in 1972.

Applied Materials manufactures systems that perform most of the primary steps in the chip fabrication process, including atomic layer deposition, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), physical vapor deposition, electrochemical plating, etching, ion implantation, rapid thermal processing, chemical mechanical polishing, metrology and wafer inspection.The company spends approximately $1B each year on research and development.Applied has three subsidiaries: AKT, Inc., Etec Systems, Inc. and Metron Technology, Inc. On July 7th, 2006 Applied Materials,Inc. has completed its acquisition of Applied Films Corp., a producer of equipment used in manufacturing flat panel displays and solar cells.

[learnin to learn]

Just wondering why this thread is located in the forum on computer science, and no moderator or administrator ever cared to move it to the appropriate forum! B)

 

 

Because the thread originally talked about the technology of solar panels and how it is advancing.

[Michaelangelica]

Because the thread originally talked about the technology of solar panels and how it is advancing.

Interesting that Silicon Valley is now becomming interested?

[learnin to learn]

Interesting that Silicon Valley is now becomming interested?

 

sorry Michaelangelica but the amount of nyquil I have taken is affecting my train of thought! (DAMN COLD!) What do you mean by this statement! You were referring to something I said but I have no clue! SORRY!

[Michaelangelica]

Just that silicon is needed for present day solar panels and now many companies in to computer chips (Silicon Valley) are now-belatedley- jumping onto the bandwagon

[Tormod]

This forum used to be "Computers and technology" but is now only Computer science. We really need a technology only forum...(how on Earth did we manage without one)... :)

[alexander]

um, because any techy things were discussed in here, and there werent many...

[gribbon]

Read the article I posted at the folllowing link, I discussed and explained what we can do with nulcear waste, and why nuclear power is safe, contrary to popular opinion. It's on nationmaster.com's forum, in the environmnet sector, and it's called,2why our fears about nulcear power are misplaced"...

[Michaelangelica]

Read the article I posted at the folllowing link, I discussed and explained what we can do with nulcear waste, and why nuclear power is safe, contrary to popular opinion. It's on nationmaster.com's forum, in the environmnet sector, and it's called,2why our fears about nulcear power are misplaced"...

The nuclear industry must have cleaned up their act quicly then

In the 1990s they were dumping waste into the sea.

 

(Could you please re-post your link as I couldn't get it

I found http://www.nationmaster.com/index.php

a great site thanks, but found no reference to nuclear waste)

[learnin to learn]

to this day nuclear waste is a major issue! We are still not quite sure what to do with it!