> -----Original Message----- > From: d l [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 11:36 PM > To: CF-Community > Subject: "grab energy from the outer space" > > watched cnn headline news a bit and they were talking scientists are > exploring the idea of capturing solar energy in outer space then beam > them back to the earth... > I thought I told someone at a Washington private equity conference this > spring something similar, why couldn't scientists look into the > possibility of capturing solar energy in outer space, store it with > some "special storage device" and periodically transport them to the > most remote area of the earth, in the process creating safety mechanism > to ensure that the device won't accidentally hit dense area... oh > well, maybe I was drunk :)
This has been in the talking phase for decades.... the big problem is still cost-per-kilowatt. It just costs too much to launch the equipment and there's too much loss in the process (photo cells aren't very good to begin with even before the loss entailed to microwaving the energy back to Earth). But there's a lot of cool ideas out there. Mirrors in space which could concentrate sunlight on collector farms 24/7, using lasers to transfer the energy more efficiently (although I don't know how that would work) and, my favorite, using ultra-lightweight fibers to create a direct connection between the satellite and Earth. Nanotubes, baby! Nanotubes encasing high-temp super-conductors linked to ultra-efficient solar cells on orbiting platforms, baby! Of course if we do get the tethers down a really promising option is giant floating windmill platforms inserted into the Jet stream. That'd be slicker than snot as well. Sci-Am did a whole piece on this stuff not too long ago - lots of "out there" techs and how close they might be to implementable. Really interesting. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Download the latest ColdFusion 8 utilities including Report Builder, plug-ins for Eclipse and Dreamweaver updates. http;//www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?e=labs%5adobecf8%5Fbeta Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:248088 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
