[Red Badger]

[cardinal4]

A good use for carbon? Impossible, algore and the EPA say so!

[pabianice]

Cost per kilowatt?

[repentant_pundit]

Can we run it backwards and cool ourselves off ?

We’re expecting 112 degrees here in Phoenix next week.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Very cool stuff. But it will happen when the technology is perfected and it becomes economically feasible. Not because somebody passes a bill.

[Red_Devil 232]

I wonder how much heat you have to apply to get these nanotubes to release their stored solar energy and is the heat released from one nanotube enough to release the heat from another nanotube and how many nanotubes have to release their heat to produce a BTU?

[Moonman62]

Since energy density isn’t mentioned I’ll assume it isn’t very good. It seems to me that the energy can only be stored on the surface exposed to light.

[wbill]

Then, when nudged by a stimulus — a catalyst, a small temperature change, a flash of light

"Hey everybody, hold still while I get this picture!!!"

[ICCtheWay]

To make an understatement, if this technology can be scaled up or modularized (linking modules) then it could have a huge impact on solar energy usage... The article says - “One limitation, however, is that while this process is useful for heating applications, to produce electricity would require another conversion step, using thermoelectric devices or producing steam to run a generator.” In this regard, I suggest coupling this technology with ‘Thermoacoustic’ technology... heat - produces sound waves - which produces mechanical motion and cooling ... There is already working STAR engines... Google Thermoacoustics - youtube and watch the demonstrations... But there more than toys in this arena — real live machines that can produced refrigeration from heat and sound.... sounds quite amazing. Ben and Jerry’s are supposed to be using Theroacoustic devices to cool their freezers...