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:Archimedes and his Burning Mirrors and Heliosta

[fact0r]

Hmm - Mythbusters - those two guys don't seem like the most intelligent guys on the planet, even though I don't rate stuff from ancient mythology as highly likely I certainly do rate Archimedes as somewhat brighter than these two knuckle-draggers.

Certainly they seem somewhat more interested in making things go bang than any form of scientific rigour. They tell us about their experience in the special effects industry but seem to forget to mention any scientific experience ...

Having said that - I quite like the show - but only because I like seeing things go bang. Definitely not because I put any stock in their results.