Cranky, I'm going to cut off the trolls and point out that sometimes it's kind of nice to get sun on your car in the winter. There are certainly pros and cons to your parking lot idea, but I think the larger point of using single-purpose space to become multi-purpose is a good one. Hence, panels...
Kenat, you mean people complain like this?
http://www.npr.org/templates/text/s.php?sId=129129794&m=1
EVERY solar project in California faces these same hurdles. "Wah, you're killing the tortoises." "Wah, you're ruining the view." And on and on. I'm not saying environmental impact reviews...
Okay, so 14%. That still seems low. But only because I'm thinking of a diesel engine which gets something like 30%. But maybe I'm off-base? The fact that we can see leaves on trees (and the fact they appear green) is evidence they're not capturing 100% of the light hitting them. Does anybody...
Does anybody know of a technique where solar is converted directly to chemical energy, just like plants? The problem with solar is the ROI sucks because the efficiency isn't good and the silicon is expensive. Can't we just convince some plant species to spit out sugar or something and then burn...
I was in the last mechanical engineering class to be required to do a hand-drafting class in 1998. One of the requirements was to precisely copy an alphabet in "drafting font" or whatever. That alone took most students a month to complete because the sadistic TA's took great pleasure in finding...
The algae people are already well-aware of the political blowback of evil genetically engineered algae that will escape and provide inspiration for a remake of "The Blob"...
Correction!!
This source: http://zebu.uoregon.edu/disted/ph162/l4.html is wrong by 3 orders of magnitude in the amount of solar energy hitting the earth. I had said earlier that there wasn't enough solar to replace the amount of energy we need on a daily basis; that is now completely wrong...
Hi, I'm trying to model a retainer for a USB port cover. Think of the thing that retains your gas cap. It's a combination of an o-ring to do sealing, and a string that tucks down inside the housing of the part. I have a sweep that goes around sharp bends and the cross section self-intersects...
Just saw the Top Gear review of the new McLaren. It's got magneto-adjustable dampers and a computer-controlled roll bar. Near as I can tell it still has good old springs in the mix. At what point do we consider something like this "fully" active?
A bit of clarification on why I won't change my behavior from ecoguilt.
I have 2 examples in mind: cars and CFLs.
CFLs suck. They don't last as long as they claim to because of shoddy quality control and - shocker! - people use them in ways the manufacturer didn't intend, such as ballast-up...
EngineerErrant, take a look at this:
http://reason.com/archives/2012/07/17/the-paradox-of-energy-efficiency
For those who won't read it, as we increase efficiency in, say light bulbs, people tend to just use more light bulbs to light their house, partially erasing the efficiency gains.
The...
I have a more pragmatic take on the politics. If politicians create a carbon tax, any reduction here will be overtaken by 2 dozen power plants going up in China. Any future technology has to be inherently cheaper than fossil fuels (without subsidy) or the market won't accept it. I'd love to see...
Tom, I don't disagree with your numbers, but you can't capture ALL of the ground level solar power. You need big big chunks of it just to power things like "all the plants on earth" and "weather". Both of which we are already messing with.
Mr. Fusion it is.
Way to go Mike. You've just depressed the living heck out of me. I found another source, http://zebu.uoregon.edu/disted/ph162/l4.html, that concurs with you. Basically there's not enough solar energy reaching the surface to keep up with our energy needs.
Sigh.
So that leaves nuclear, right...
KENAT, sorry, I didn't fully understand the implications of stationary power generation in your comment. So the reason we don't burn plants instead of coal is because coal is cheaper, right? Is that actually a true statement or do we just default to coal because it's more convenient...
Tom, my heating bill has gone down by half over the last few years. I'm very thankful, but that is still carbon we're adding to the atmosphere. It's better energy per carbon emitted than coal or oil, but it's still adding.
