Solar cell

My pal and I actually have a patent on a cute method of doing this--you use a hard-coated plastic sphere about 2 feet in diameter, full of water, with a flat mirror shaped like a pagoda, so as to compensate for the horrible spherical aberration of the sphere.

The tracker was my contribution. It's an all-passive system--no motors, no electricity--based on buoyancy, and (I calculated) could easily achieve accurate enough tracking for 2000 suns concentration. (Without being too mysterious, it combined the principles of the Crookes radiometer, the Edmund Scientific drinking bird, and the coffee percolator.)

I demoed the coarse tracking servo, but I left IBM before we had a chance to build a whole system. It's a pretty cool gizmo--the water is the lens, cooling system, and the mechanical stabilization system all in one. You just dump 'em off the back of a truck, hook up the wires, and drain the Colorado River to fill them up. ;) Then they Just Work.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Its a free market.

Build them and sell them for $2000.

This would start the price war and within, says 6 weeks, the price will drop to $9.

Isn't the free market the way to go ??

hamilton

That, actually, will work. Problem is, so far, the free market recognizes that PV solar isn't economic. The non-free market, e.g. Germany, is spending loads of free money (taxpayer money, that is), so the cost of inverters doesn't matter, especially with the subsidies they pay.

By contrast, how much does a PC power supply cost today, and what government subsidy was needed to get it there? Answer: zero, and zero.

-- Cheers, James Arthur

Nah, free markets are so last century. We're into government subsidies now.

So the new free market model is "Government Subsidies" .

Like the plans last century to get a bunch of free market thinkers (old school) to invest in junk securities ?

Bet they will lose and then collect on the taxpayer bailout ?

But the US had to elect a democrat to get the payout so the republicans won't be the ones to be holding the bag.

That new free market model ??

hamilton :-)

Wooosssshhhhh!

Last century? Your question is nonsensical. Crony capitalism free market

If you're talking about the recent bank fiasco, they did both and were encouraged to do so.

You are a fool.

Are you *really* as stupid as you sound here? I'm surprised you can breathe.

Sorry, There is no free market, just "Government Subsidies".

hamilton

Wooosssshhhhh!

The cells in solar powered garden lights output 1.3V or better and there is only one per unit / light; they are advertised as being silicon cells of a more modern AKA efficient design.

funds.

the Sahara desert IIRC.

Europe.

snakes that live there ;-)

Yup! Just print (yet) another trillion dollars backed by NOTING...

Did you expect the wafer in a greater detail ?

My guess is that there is a narrow break through the wafer and those two parts are connected in series. With the typical silicon pn junction voltage drop of 0,65 V, thus 2x0,65 V = 1,3 V.

It's actually backed by the goodwill of China

In another 15-20 years, India should be in a position to lend money, then maybe Africa, so it can go on indefinitely. Maybe. ;-)

On a sunny day (Mon, 19 Apr 2010 09:37:53 -0400) it happened Spehro Pefhany wrote in :

Maybe, as the interest on the loans will become bigger then the national product, you will get 1 M$ bills to buy some eggs. At least PICs will be cheap for us Europeans, probably 1000 to the dollar. hehe

On Apr 18, 3:55=A0pm, hamilton wrote: [...]

The reason that the republicans were in favor of going to Mars was so that they could run out on the check.

and 3 computers will more than serve all the world's computation needs...

Antoon

Nope, we need someplace to put Demonicrats; Total Recall.

Not goodwill at all. China is screwed. They need our markets as much as we need their loans. More, in fact.

Actually, one computer will do. It is called the "world wide web" Three might end up excessive.

The point being that there are far cheaper and far more spectacular ways to destroy gasoline than by hiding the process in a pv panel disguise that is in no manner renewable nor sustainable.

Having the feds hire people ( via outrageous subsidies that will take many DECADES of not-yet-here net solar energy to pay for ) to purposely destroy gasoline is ludicrous.

There is not the slightest doubt that new generation pv will eventually become a net energy source. It will just take a lot longer with all the present stupidities and outright lies going on.

And, of course, most of the present participants will play no role whatsoever in the emerging technologies.

A detailed analysis at