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Solar Cell Achieves 40% Efficiency
Fysiks Wurks found on the U.S. Department of Energy website news of a breakthrough in solar energy efficiency. From the article: "...with DOE funding, a concentrator solar cell produced by Boeing-Spectrolab has recently achieved a world-record conversion efficiency of 40.7 percent, establishing a new milestone in sunlight-to-electricity performance." A page linked from Wikipedia's article on solar energy calculates the land area that would need to be covered by solar collectors at 8% efficiency to meet the world's energy needs (using 2003 figures). At 40% efficiency, it looks like a square 265 miles on a side in the American southwest would do it.
> At 40% efficiency, it looks like a square 265 miles on a side in the American southwest would do it.
A use for Israel! At last they can put something positive back into the world!
Exactly what 'effects on the economy' do you expect? Hundreds of thousands of jobs lost in the power industry (possibly taken up as solar panel repairmen?). Grid power costing more for those that can't afford to buy enough solar panels? There's a lot more to an economy than just how much the middle-upper class pay in their bills. Not that I ever studied economics, but I don't see why this has to have a positive effect on an economy?
which is totally what she said
there is our next target with the new bomb (thank you, george), the Americans make it sooooo easy.
Well maybe if you idiot yanks stopped invading the shit out of places you wouldn't have to worry about someone bombing your solar array. Just a thought.
There is actually too much unproductive farmland in America. We have a lot of land that is actually very poor, but still in production due to farm subsidies. And desert land is very nutrient poor.
Who the hell cares about placing it in America? As for desert land being nutrient poor, thats a crock.
Here in the West, and more so the SouthWest, we have this issue with water. We are lacking.
Pump it via your nice solar powered pumps. And again, who was talking about America?
A simple fact is that plants need light. The solar cells use what? Why light.
So nothing will grow in the pitch darkness between the cells. Thats some superglued engineering you got going on there sparky.
What he can't kill, he has sex on. Trent.
Wow...you must of visited the coastal areas right after the hurricanes hit; because what you're describing certainly isn't America. It does, however, describe a small subsect of American subculture.
You need to remember, in America, most of the areas which have 'poverty far exceeding that of other "less developed" nations.', are impoverished because that's the life style chosen by those people. You need to remember there is an entire subculture of Americans whos sole goal in life is to figure out how to obtain more federal assistance while doing absolutely nothing. And since they have so much free time, crime and breeding is a popoular past time...after all, not only can you make money doing it, but you can also increase your federal assistance by pumping out babies. You need to remember, there are people right now, suing for additional federal assistance, which has run out following their relocation after the hurricanes. Assistance, I might hadd, which had already been extended a number of times...including free housing which is, in some cases, a magnitude nicer than they had before. Most of these people can work...and work is available, yet refuse to work because they prefer hand outs and free money from the government and people around them. In all cities where a major influx of refugees have been received, the crime rates have gone through the roof. Parts of Houston and Dallas have been especally hit hard...in some cases, violent crimes have more than doubled and theft has quadroupled.
The vast majority of Americans have available to them at least some form of health care and education up to at least high school is readily available, yet often squandered. Now granted, it may not be America's finest health care, but I pay a lot for my own health care and it's not the finest America has to offer. In fact, for the poor, finding the time (without pay) to receive that health care is usually the hardest part of obtaining health care in the US.
The long of the short, you have a very jaded, unrealistic view of a small subset of American society.
Case in point, next door to us a house was provided to a government program which allows people to get out of the ghettos. The house's value is in the $180k range, located in the south. That's a nice, two story, 2800sq/ft house, in a middle, upper class neighborhood. Their cost was only $250/mo for what should have been $1600/mo for anyone else. They lived there for less than a year when they were finally kicked out. In that year, the entire house was trashed. All the sheetrock on three rooms had to be replaced. Three doors, including an exterior door, had to be replaced. ALL of the flooring had to be replaced and every room had to be repainted. Before they moved in, every room had received high-end paint and trim. The owner wound up spending some four thousand dollars (at last count he shared with me) to modestly repair the damage that had been done to the home. This was the thanks he received for providing a helping hand. The short of the long, their exists a subculture in America which feel the government owes them everything and they should not be responsible for anything.
You also need to consider that America has a large number of poor, illegal aliens. These people often live poor, receive federal assistance, and don't pay taxes, as they try to scratch their way up to find their own version of the American dream. In many cases, their poor and impoverished living conditions far exceed what they left in Mexico or some other part of the world.
Any rate, you might consider learning more about the subject before you share your uninfomred views on America. After that's all said and done, there are certainly a very small number of homeless and poor which are trying to find/make a better life for themselves...but it's fairly uplikely that's what you've observed.
Solar cells cost a lot of energy to make, so what's the life span on these things? What's left if you subtract the manufactoring costs from the life-time energy generation of these things?
Wow. It's amazing that in the 51 years that commercial solar power has been available, nobody has ever before considered this issue. You sir, have brought much insight to the world. Next, perhaps you can answer the question for me, is the copper in a single penny worth more than a penny?