dlkf writes: "There is an article on Space.com that talks about some of the benefits, costs and current research relevant to using satellites to generate and store power. This surplus of power could then be beamed via laser or microwave to earth or other satellites."
Wonder why the bots from the Matrix never thought of doing this?
They have probably never seen Highlander 2. Not that many people have.
Why not use the acres of urban tarpaper?
by
SgtChaireBourne
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
There must be millions of square kilometers of flat rooves in the world's cities. Since most are neither generally accessable nor designed for regular activties, they'd make
an idea place for solar arrays. You could even use DC instead of AC due to the proximity, but that would be a bother. In hot areas, the shade would help lower the temperature of the upper floors.
-- Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
Re:Bad Idea... Perhaps not
by
conan_albrecht
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· Score: 5, Informative
I recently discussed this idea with a planetary scientist. We did a little research and here's what we came up with:
The microwave beam does not disrupt any planes, etc. because they are made of metal. Even a small amount of metal shields microwaves in the frequency that would be used -- same reason that metal won't heat in your home microwave -- it just reflects the light waves.
Organic beings that come into the focused beam cone are not affected much by the beam. Microwave s only sink into your skin about 1-2 inches. At most it raises your body temperature one or two degrees. Of course, people won't normally be inside of these beam cones anyway.
Earth-based solar stations have to put up with night. Orbital solar arrays only have a few hours of blackout each year. Most of the year they can beam the microwave down 24 hours per day, even in geosynchronous orbit over a country like Japan.
It may not be the best alternative for countries such as the U.S., but it makes more sense for smaller countries such as Japan that have almost no natural energy resources.
My $0.02.
Problems with solar power
by
wiredog
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· Score: 5, Informative
OK, several posters have said "Why not just use solar cells?". Here's why:
Solar power is not quite ready yet. If you live in an area, such as the desert southwest of the USA, that gets lots of sun, then solar can work. The initial cost is higher than other power sources, but people do it. The maintenance factor is a problem as well, since most solar power systems require batteries for storage. My previous employer looked at solar quite seriously because the line power, in Cedar City Utah, sucked. Brownouts were common. It turned out to be cheaper to replace equipment on a yearly basis than to put solar cells and a battery bank in.
If you live in an area such as the northwest of the USA then you can forget about solar. There are too many cloudy days.
Putting a bank of solar cells in the Nevada desert would work for Nevada, but distributing it beyond Nevada would be difficult.
The cloudy days and the distribution problems apply to SPS as well. The price of solar is going down, and in the desert areas it will probably be a better solution than SPS. In a few years.
Re:Radiations would kill us all
by
Telek
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· Score: 4, Informative
2.45GHz and 10GHz would be common wavelengths based on past studies. Your microwave operates at... oh 2.5GHz!
But fear not! There's more to the microwave science than meets the eye.
You see, in order for microwaves to do anything, they have to be absorbed into something and not re-emitted
This only happens when you have something in a liquid state... Otherwise, for example, when microwaves pass through steam they will excite the water molucules by causing them to vibrate madly, but as soon as the microwaves have finished passing through them the molecules stop vibrating, and nothing changes. The only way that you will get it to heat up a lot is if, in the process of causing those molecules to vibrate, those molecules rub against other molecules and transfer some kinetic energy. This can only happen effectively in liquid states.
If it's in a gaseous state and you have a constant beam that will continue to excite the water molecules in it's path, but due to winds and the fact that once you heat up a gas it will expand and move around on it's own you won't have a very large problem. If it's raining or you have a very dense cloud that's about to cause a storm, then you might have a problem, but under normal circumstances you'd be fine.
I remember reading somewhere that a good analogy was to think of them like this: imagine an object floating on water as waves pass by. The object will bob up and down but once the waves have passed there is no appreciable net change in energy to the object. However now imagine that this object was sitting right next to a fixed object, like a boat and a dock. As the boat bobs up and down it will rub up against the dock and friction will cause the dock to warm up. Same deal here.
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from SimCity2000. I based my entire city's power grid on 4 of these things. Then the microwave beam missed, and blew up two of the other power plants.
My other sig is funny!
There must be millions of square kilometers of flat rooves in the world's cities. Since most are neither generally accessable nor designed for regular activties, they'd make an idea place for solar arrays. You could even use DC instead of AC due to the proximity, but that would be a bother. In hot areas, the shade would help lower the temperature of the upper floors.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
- The microwave beam does not disrupt any planes, etc. because they are made of metal. Even a small amount of metal shields microwaves in the frequency that would be used -- same reason that metal won't heat in your home microwave -- it just reflects the light waves.
- Organic beings that come into the focused beam cone are not affected much by the beam. Microwave s only sink into your skin about 1-2 inches. At most it raises your body temperature one or two degrees. Of course, people won't normally be inside of these beam cones anyway.
- Earth-based solar stations have to put up with night. Orbital solar arrays only have a few hours of blackout each year. Most of the year they can beam the microwave down 24 hours per day, even in geosynchronous orbit over a country like Japan.
It may not be the best alternative for countries such as the U.S., but it makes more sense for smaller countries such as Japan that have almost no natural energy resources.My $0.02.
Solar power is not quite ready yet. If you live in an area, such as the desert southwest of the USA, that gets lots of sun, then solar can work. The initial cost is higher than other power sources, but people do it. The maintenance factor is a problem as well, since most solar power systems require batteries for storage. My previous employer looked at solar quite seriously because the line power, in Cedar City Utah, sucked. Brownouts were common. It turned out to be cheaper to replace equipment on a yearly basis than to put solar cells and a battery bank in.
If you live in an area such as the northwest of the USA then you can forget about solar. There are too many cloudy days.
Putting a bank of solar cells in the Nevada desert would work for Nevada, but distributing it beyond Nevada would be difficult.
The cloudy days and the distribution problems apply to SPS as well. The price of solar is going down, and in the desert areas it will probably be a better solution than SPS. In a few years.
Best Slashdot Co
2.45GHz and 10GHz would be common wavelengths based on past studies. Your microwave operates at ... oh 2.5GHz!
But fear not! There's more to the microwave science than meets the eye.
You see, in order for microwaves to do anything, they have to be absorbed into something and not re-emitted
This only happens when you have something in a liquid state... Otherwise, for example, when microwaves pass through steam they will excite the water molucules by causing them to vibrate madly, but as soon as the microwaves have finished passing through them the molecules stop vibrating, and nothing changes. The only way that you will get it to heat up a lot is if, in the process of causing those molecules to vibrate, those molecules rub against other molecules and transfer some kinetic energy. This can only happen effectively in liquid states.
If it's in a gaseous state and you have a constant beam that will continue to excite the water molecules in it's path, but due to winds and the fact that once you heat up a gas it will expand and move around on it's own you won't have a very large problem. If it's raining or you have a very dense cloud that's about to cause a storm, then you might have a problem, but under normal circumstances you'd be fine.
I remember reading somewhere that a good analogy was to think of them like this: imagine an object floating on water as waves pass by. The object will bob up and down but once the waves have passed there is no appreciable net change in energy to the object. However now imagine that this object was sitting right next to a fixed object, like a boat and a dock. As the boat bobs up and down it will rub up against the dock and friction will cause the dock to warm up. Same deal here.
If God gave us curiosity