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Termyn8or -> RE: Future of Solar? Maybe not..... (2/12/2011 9:18:34 AM)
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FR
They seem to be stressing polarizing the light. Maybe I'm not right on top of things, but I don't see how that could help efficiency. The only way polarization would have a positive effect would be in a technology that reverses the process used in LCD technology. An LCD cell works by polarizing light, and then twisting it to cause the polarizing filter to block it. That technology used in reverse, for example if light could be made to fight the twisting might someday be used to produce a voltage. This would be like a piezoelectric effect in a way, apply voltage - it moves, move it - it produces voltage. Anything else, polarizing light just blocks some of it. A polarizing filter either reflects or absorbs the light it does not admit.
In the simplest of terms, a photovoltaic works by forcibly knocking electrons out of their orbit onto some sort of collector. An electrical connection provides new electrons, and thus becomes the positive terminal. In a sense, this is brute force. And it works better and better with more light, until it burns up.
And what I say now may be unexpected, but photovoltaics are almost a waste of time. What do we really need electricity for anyway ? I'm not being flippant, but if you boil it down, as soon as you get electricity, what do you do ? You convert it to other forms of energy. Whatever turns the generators at PASNE or TVA, wherever is torsional force. What do you do with the electricity they produce ? One of the thing is to run a motor, converting it back to torsional force.
Right now the best thing going is to store the electricity, but what if someone thought outside the box and figured out more direct ways to store and use the energy ?
The only things that really need electricity are semiconductor devices. There are other ways to refrigerate your food, heat your house, even to illuminate it. In the future, we might find that we have wasted a hell of alot of copper. Many give lip service to understanding that all usable energy on this planet comes from the sun. Start your car, all cars are technically solar powered. The sun provided the energy to bake those old trees and dinosaur bones or whatever fell and got swept under the dirt, into petroleum. Windmills ? What do you think makes the air move ?
In the next decade, photovoltaics might double or triple in efficiency. Then what ? They still won't be the preemininent power source unless waterfalls stop falling, or we run out of coal and oil.
It boils down to numbers. Proposed BS is proposed BS. How many lumens/watts of solar energy vs how many volts and amps of output ? Show me, with a simple voltmeter and ammeter. Show me how the strength of the incident (sun)light is measured. When your numbers beat the other guy's you win.
Solar power would be great, a nice backup etc. Get off the grid maybe. But it's not going to see much in the way of advancement as long as there is something left to sell.
T^T
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