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Where are the 70% Efficient Solar Cells?
VernonNemitz asks: "Back in 1984 a patent was granted for silicon chip micro rectennas, which would convert visible photons into electricity in the same way that ordinary rectennas convert microwaves into electricity, at perhaps 70% or greater efficiency. Nobody could make such solar cells back in 1984, but we certainly can today, with sizes of antennas that would capture everything from infrared to the edges of UV -- and the patent has expired. So, where are they?" Currently the most popular type of solar technology is photovoltaics, however PV technology only has an efficiency of about 7-17%. With the potential gains claimed by the technology in the cited patent, has anyone even tried to build one of these units to see if it can live up to the given promise, or at least prove to be a technology than we should be exploring?
What the US needs is a Manhattan Project for alternative energy to oil. Solar, wind, geo, fusion, whatever. Something but burning simple chain hydrocarbons and because the waste product is mostly invisible, pretending it doesn't exist.
Who elected George Bush anyway?
Okay here's my problem with your argument:
If GWB is so concerned about keeping the Texas oil economy going and appeasing the Texas oil companies, wouldn't he want to avoid increasing the supplies of oil, especially foreign oil? If GWB annexed Iraq and started sucking out all the oil for US use, that would just tank the prices of oil and lower the demand for Texas oil.
Plus he's POTUS now, not Governer of Texas, he has more people to appease then just the Texans. (And if it was so easy to invent alternative energy he'd score far more points across the board then he would lose in Texas)
Bush & Cheney both sold off their stocks (at a loss at the time), to limit their conflict of interest with the oil companies.
It isn't GWB holding up electric cars in some oil conspiracy, it's the population as a whole - who collectively don't seem all that interested in alternative fuel vehicles or higher fuel usage vehicles. Then there's the money for whatever new infrastructure is required by alternative energy...
Boy, I've never agreed so much with a person on the edge of paranoid hysteria before. It is all economics. Oil is too cheap right now to make investment in alternative technologies attractive. But look at who owns the major PV production facilities: Oil companies. Look at how much effort is going into alternative fuel vehicles even now. The money knows the party will be over in the next generation. My worry isn't a new "oil fascism," because abundant alternatives are more attractive than repressive rationing of ever more expensive oil. When oil gets too expensive, the alternatives become attractive.
My worry is the health of the planet in the mean time. I live in central Minnesota, USA. Our average high temperature this time of year is about 9 degrees F. Yesterday it was 55 degrees F. I know full well one warm winter does not global warming make, but we've had several bizzarely warm years lately. We're s--tting where we eat and it worries me.
If GWB annexed Iraq and started sucking out all the oil for US use, that would just tank the prices of oil and lower the demand for Texas oil.
... so that you can think you're filling for $1.79/gallon. (based on the cost of drilling, wars, local goverment concessions to bring industry to the area, etc.)
t0qer's argument is correct, though, just not formulated quite accurately. It's not support for Texan oil. There really isn't any more Texan oil. What oil the US produces is mostly offshore or Alaskan, but even so it's small fraction of what we use.
Bush isn't trying to support pumping of oil; imported crude goes straight into the US petrochemical industry. Many of the refineries are in Texas, but even where they aren't, GWB is a friend of the industry. It's where he made his millions, and it's all he knows.
It's not simple selfishness and wanting to pad his wallet. It's just that that industry is where he grew up. He's conditioned to think of it as central to US wealth and prosperity, the driver of the economy. In his mind, whatever is good for the oil companies is good for every American. He really honestly believes he's doing the right thing for all of us by suppressing alternative technologies and making war with Iraq.
Bush is not smart and worldly enough to see the bigger picture, or to take the long view.
Getting the Iraqi oil fields under a friendly regime means the US has more *control* over oil prices and fewer "bad guys" to worry about messing up the economics for his favorite companies.
It isn't GWB holding up electric cars in some oil conspiracy, it's the population as a whole - who collectively don't seem all that interested in alternative fuel vehicles or higher fuel usage vehicles.
Yes and no. US consumers don't want a wimpy EV1, for the most part. They want the bulk, power, and capacity of an SUV. Thus, the consumer is to blame.
But... The government spends many billions on petroleum research, exploration, and foreign policy to support the petroleum economy. The cost of just the first war with Iraq and the subsequent decade-long airspace occupation is estimated in the back hall of congress to be in the range of $100 to $200 billion. Billions more are spent every year to subsidize activities (research and exlporation) that benefit the oil companies. I've seen figures (can't find them right now) that estimate you pay $5 to $8 per gallon of gas in income taxes to support petroleum
Now... if over the last fifteen years the government had spent that same half a trillion dollars on electric, fuel cell, and hybrid vehicle research, don't you think we'd already have big powerful SUVs that don't depend on oil? We'd have a cleaner country, consumers just as happy, and fewer foreign policy messes. What if we'd been doing that since 1920? Shouldn't we start now so we're not asking the same question again in 2040?
I stole this sig from someone cleverer than me.
Honestly, bioethanol has much more short term potential than biodiesel. Lignocellulosic feedstock is available in bulk, and the baseline economics are pretty good - a modest scale facility using existing technology could be built today that would make ethanol at a total cost of probably 1.30-1.60 per gallon if feedstock availability is good and cost is cheap (this works out to probably 1.70-1.90 per gallon equivalent of standard gasoline). In other words, with another 15-20% efficiency improvement followed by scale increases to reduce the amortized fixed cost of plant+facilities per gallon, it could be price competitive with gasoline. And there are already well over 1 million FFVs (Flexible Fuel Vehicles) on the road today that could burn E85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline mix) without modification - most people who own these cars don't even realize it.
Ethanol has real potential and some of us are working on making it into a business reality.
I see alot of people here want cheap solar cells that can cover their entire roof for a "few hundred dollars". Are you nuts? Standard roofing materials (made from asphalt) aren't that cheap and all they do is keep water out!
Maybe the price needs to come down to a few THOUSAND dollars...with some government tax credits and utility savings, it might be worth it.
-ted