Solar Power Put to Good Use

Current Shunts writes "Teams from all over the U.S. and Canada will be competing this summer over a 2,500 mile course from Austin, Texas in the United States to Calgary Alberta Canada for the 2005 North American Solar Challenge. The purpose of this event is to promote renewable energy technologies, integrate science and engineering disciplines, and give competitors an opportunity to showcase their technical and creative abilities." At the same time, zestyalbino writes "Construction on the world's largest solar tower [RMIT] may begin next year in Mildura, Australia. In a nutshell, "An ever present large mass of air under an expansive transparent collector (seven kilometres in diameter) is heated by solar radiation (greenhouse effect) providing a continuous flow of hot air to drive electricity generating turbines located around the base of the one-kilometre tall central tower." There's also an article on Wired."

Comments

Re:Yes

[jay-be-em]

Well built solar panels can last quite a bit longer than 7 years. Many consumer grade solar panels have 10 year warranties, and many of the older panels made 40 years ago are still in operation.

Archimedes and his Burning Mirrors and Heliostats

[pflodo]

Archimedes supposedly set fire to the Roman Navy using an arrangement of mirrors.

And you probably wouldn't want to have this guy as a neighbour, as he used reflected light from 100 mirrors to "cut" the tops off several trees.