http://news.com.com/2100-7337_3-5466122.html
"A Sandia National Laboratories project in New Mexico will test whether a farm of solar dishes can compete with conventional fuels for electricity generation."
"The invention of the heat-driven Stirling engine dates to 1816"
"Hypothetically, a solar-dish farm covering 11 square miles could produce as much electricity per year as the Hoover Dam"
Only 11 square miles? Dang, imagine how much power the unused roofs of an average city's downtown could generate.
What average cities are 11 square miles?
I get your point, though; just like wind power, solar power is an under-exploited resource. We should build more wind farms with solar panels covering them...
>solar power is an under-exploited resource
Because selling oil for billions drives certain economies. If you were in the business to make money, would YOU want some 'alternative' to come around and put you out of business?
Isn't there a prediction that oil will run out in 2030? Even the oil companies will have to start thinking of new [or old] alternatives.
And even if it doesn't run out, they may be overrun by little upstart companies. Google took over the Altavista market. Microsoft took over IBM's market. Cars took over the horse carriage. Oil took over the coal industry.
The knowledge is already out there, so I'd want to invest in the 'alternative' before my competitors do. Not necessarily migrate completely to it right away, but set up a foundation to use should a paradigm shift of earthshaking proportions assault the industry.
Mind you, this is assuming that the 'alternative' is in fact a remotely viable one.
I want to see an overhaul of the motor oil industry. Oil motors are noisy, they emit vibrations, heat and bad gasses. Lots of wasted energy. A good engine should be silent, clean, vibration-free and emit as little heat as possible.
I dunno, biodiesel is pretty cool. Not sure if it can ever be produced on a large scale though.
>We should build more wind farms with solar panels covering them...
And solar panels on the propeller blades B)
>>9
The used oil from every deep fryer in the country isn't large scale?
Which country are you talking about here?
I'll tell you a problem. Used oil collection companies, whilst charge nothing for the service, over here are really slack with meeting demand, even if they make 33c / Litre and charge us nothing. For instance, where I work has 7 deep fryers and a total of over 200 Litres between them all. They get changed weekly at the moment because of christmas, and my work is constantly having to call between two seperate companies trying to at least get one out to remove the oil from the used oil bin out the back when it gets full. They say "yeah yeah we'll be there soon" and never show up at the said time. We aren't the only store with this problem, and a lot of places solidify and then just bin the solid oil.
>>11
The (lol fat lol) US of A.
That is a problem. I can only imagine it's due to the as yet low demand for biodiesel.
The problem is, that biodiesel is actually worse for TEH ENVIRONMENT!! than regular diesel.
Our army and public transport authority ran parts of their vehicle fleets on biodiesel, but then switched back fast as all fuck, when they noticed that the nitric oxide output had actually risen through the use of rapemethylester ("biodiesel").
Australia is fatter than the US. sigh