I don't as it would have very limited applicability if any at all. Plus, if the surfaces are eventually whitened as is the goal of the LBNL initiative, that would reduce the effectiveness of such systems. I also doubt that sufficient energy can be captured to make it worthwhile, although the principle is the same as that of using molten salt to store heat from CSP for use during the overnight to produce steam.
The maximum temperature would probably follow the same pattern as the heating of the atmosphere, peaking somewhere around 4-6pm in the summer and reaching a lowpoint just before dawn. So the number of hours that usable heat could be "extracted" is much less than 24 and by the time it has passed through the heat exchanger system, it may not add significantly to any water that is to be heated. It seems like a very complicated way to produce energy on the margin when there are other more readily available sources. There is a long history of using undergound pipes to heat or cool surfaces, e.g. football fields and hockey arenas, but none in the area of heat collection in this way. In the interest of furthering scientific knowledge, I will take the trusty IR non contact thermometer outside right now and get a parking lot/roadway reading and also some tomorrow during the daytime. The range for tomorrow is 67-85F, much less than Phoenix, but it should give an idea as to what to expect. Results: probably biased because it rained earlier and nature took away all that valuable waste heat energy, but the air temp is about 73F at 10:30pm EDT and the roads, parking lots and sidewalks (I believe in being thorough) ranged from 74-77, indicating some residual heat in the pavement, but not very much. The article and or video noted that only a small fraction of parking lots were actually used for parking, so instead of installing an expensive and problematic heat exchanger system, why not have some of the post real estate collapse serfs place a white tarp onto these urban hot plates during the daytime and remove them at night. Now that's a use of the tarp that even old John McCain could support for Arizona. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrew Revkin" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, August 14, 2009 9:32 PM Subject: [geo] whatever you think of orbiting solar... > > does anyone out there see heat harvesting from parking lots as > "transformational? > http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/14/energy-frontiers-space-solar-hot-lots/ > weigh in... > > > -- > Andrew C. Revkin > The New York Times / Environment > 620 Eighth Ave., NY, NY 10018 > Tel: 212-556-7326 Mob: 914-441-5556 > Fax: 509-357-0965 > http://www.nytimes.com/revkin > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
