Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.
Posted on 08/03/2010 10:54:16 AM PDT by Freeport
A new process that simultaneously combines the light and heat of solar radiation to generate electricity could offer more than double the efficiency of existing solar cell technology, say the Stanford engineers who discovered it and proved that it works. The process, called "photon enhanced thermionic emission," or PETE, could reduce the costs of solar energy production enough for it to compete with oil as an energy source.
Stanford engineers have figured out how to simultaneously use the light and heat of the sun to generate electricity in a way that could make solar power production more than twice as efficient as existing methods and potentially cheap enough to compete with oil.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
s long as the suns shinning
And will still produce electricity at 6-10 times the cost of existing energy production sources.
Well if the sun stops shining, it doesn’t really matter anymore...
The naysayers on this thread amaze me. It’s as if they’re judging the potential of automobiles by the state of the art in 1945, or computers in 1970.
We MUST reduce our dependency on foreign oil. That much, I think we can all agree on. Solar is as good an approach as any. With the recent advances in solar paint and room temperature batteries, I think solar could become a viable option sooner rather than later.
Besides, every dollar spent on solar is a dollar that doesn’t go to the Islamists.
When I fall and break my neck I am sure Obamacare will treat me well...as long as I am producing income tax...if not, then pain killers until I expire.
“Besides, every dollar spent on solar is a dollar that doesn’t go to the Islamists”
Right. Drill baby drill. Build those nuclear power plants.
Wow! It will go from 50 cents a KWhr, to 25 cents! Still double or more than double the cost of that evil carbon based stuff. Not interested. Yet.
I could win the lottery. I had better plan how to spend it all.
If you want to reduce dependence on foreign oil, just drill domestically and reduce the environmental regulations to some way south of ‘insane’. You’ve got all the oil you’ll need for hundreds of years.
“We MUST reduce our dependency on foreign oil. That much, I think we can all agree on. Solar is as good an approach as any.”
LOL! Really?
Better than drilling here? Shale oil? Natural gas?
Even wind?
If I’m not mistaken, even of greeny technology, solar is dead last.
Which part of this statement didn't you get???
And yes, it DOES only work while the sun's shinning, and NO solar is NOT an end all solution, get over that too.
It IS a huge step up from 15% - 20% TOTAL efficiency to 50%+!
That's the story, not any politically sarcastic point of view...
“Solar is as good an approach as any”
Its as good as domestic oil? hardly
How much more does this technology cost compared to current solar panels?
BTW they won’t work as a replacement to rooftop panels.
“Because PETE performs best at temperatures well in excess of what a rooftop solar panel would reach,”
Given that the VERY best photo-voltaics are about 20% efficient [IIRC], that would mean that these doubled-efficiency cells would be about 40%.
I don’t think that as a major power-generation source solar-electricity will be effective until they’re about 80% efficient, which means anther doubling of efficiency is needed for that sort of application... but these, if cost-effective, could be useful in generic/small-scale [residential] power-generation.
of course lithium for the batteries grows on trees in a beautiful grove somewhere in liberaltopia
Well, that’s easily solved with a parabolic reflector underneath the panel... especially in a place like AZ or NM.
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