Slashdot Mirror
Open Project to Develop Renewable Energy System
rohar writes "We have been working on a system that combines some existing indirect solar technologies to build a location independent, renewable, reliable and economically feasible indirect solar electrical power generation system. The idea is to 'roll-your-own' geothermal source by capturing heat from the ambient air with a solar powered absorption heat pump, store it underground and generate electricity from the air cooling convection. When the air is cooler the stored heat is then used in a reverse process to generate electricity by transferring the heat back to the air when it is cooler (at night or seasonal). There are many additional benefits including clean water capture from the "dehumidifier" effect of the air cooling, construction from common materials and thermal storage that may be incorporated into dwelling heat systems." After reading over their description, how likely do you think it is to work?
It may be that this particular case will not work, but the idea is great. Roll it yourself systems developed, improved, forked and tested online through an open source ideology... great stuff (: One has to admire the potential social consequences of the open source ideas, both in technology, law and governance.
Sadly for some, this also applies to warfare.
(this blog speaks of, amongst other things, how "open source warfare" (OSW) is the key behind the insurgency success in Iraq. The methods applied by what is essentially guerilla groups testing wildly different approaches across the nation, then learning from their success, contrary to a carefully planned and centralized military system)As far as the Zero Emission Solar Panels are concerned, in Germany there is a Zero Emission solar panel factory too, in Freiburg. The trick is that they use Rapeseed oil to power their plant.