There is already a cheap and robust solar powered fuel production system. It is call... life. Algae is one example that is being developed to provide motor fuel etc.kurt9 wrote:If it can be made cheap and robust enough, could this solar powered nanotube technology be considered the energy storage technology that finally makes solar energy useful? The solar power is used to make methane whenever the sun shines and the methane is then used or stored in tanks. When the sun does not shine (night or cloudy days), the methane is then used as motor fuel or burned to generate electricity.
Methane from Sun+CO2
Production rates are not there yet. There are efforts to use synthetic biology and artificial catalysts to get the production rates up and the costs down. It is not clear yet if these approaches will work.KitemanSA wrote:There is already a cheap and robust solar powered fuel production system. It is call... life. Algae is one example that is being developed to provide motor fuel etc.
Solar and wind power are great. But if mankind is going to survive in the long run he needs to colonize beyond this planet. In order to do that you're going to need to produce power several orders of magnitude beyond what we are currently capable of doing. For that you're going to need something like a polywell fusion reactor.
If you buy it on a loan, yeah...$10k has a cost of $500 at 5% interest
But if you buy it as an investment.... Currently you get 2% interest on a normal savings account. Maybe 2.5%... So that would make your equation only half. In return you dont have to deal with some fracking banks. That is worth a lot in my book... all criminals anyway!
Over the time periods you were talking about, investments will yield more like 5%. It may be negative now, but long run...Skipjack wrote:If you buy it on a loan, yeah...$10k has a cost of $500 at 5% interest
But if you buy it as an investment.... Currently you get 2% interest on a normal savings account. Maybe 2.5%... So that would make your equation only half. In return you dont have to deal with some fracking banks. That is worth a lot in my book... all criminals anyway!
What kind of investments?
I just talked to my bank yesterday.
A safe investment with garanteed returns gives you about 2% right now. If you make a very big investment, you might get 2.5%. That would be more than 10,000 USD though. 5% maybe with stock fonds and we know how that went last time. If I had to choose, I would rather take the solar cells. The less you have to deal with those legalized criminals, the better.
I just talked to my bank yesterday.
A safe investment with garanteed returns gives you about 2% right now. If you make a very big investment, you might get 2.5%. That would be more than 10,000 USD though. 5% maybe with stock fonds and we know how that went last time. If I had to choose, I would rather take the solar cells. The less you have to deal with those legalized criminals, the better.
Thank you for making my point. Right Now, in the middle of the biggest downturn in recent memory, your bank will give you a better return than the solar cells. Long term, other investments will prove even better; PROVIDED the electricity costs stay the same relative to other things, and the same for solar. That is NOT going to happen. Eventually, PV may actually be economical for certain things, like airconditioning drived peaking power. But the power companies will have to be able to charge the real price for that power, not average it in like they do on most residential bills. ToD pricing must happen for rational decisions to happen.Skipjack wrote:What kind of investments?
I just talked to my bank yesterday.
A safe investment with garanteed returns gives you about 2% right now.
ToD- pricing?
Anyway, so PV cells are a long way from being cost effective (if it goes after me) and even further away if it goes after Kiteman. So why the hell are we wasting our money on them?
I mean, so many people are putting them on their roofs and a lot of public electric equipment here is powered by solar cells (some street lamps in parks and those dran parking fee billing stations). It does not make any sense!
Oh and I will do good in avoiding giving my money to those criminals in the banks, wherever I can. Terrible what these bankers got away with and then the government gives them money too... Criminals, all together!
Anyway, so PV cells are a long way from being cost effective (if it goes after me) and even further away if it goes after Kiteman. So why the hell are we wasting our money on them?
I mean, so many people are putting them on their roofs and a lot of public electric equipment here is powered by solar cells (some street lamps in parks and those dran parking fee billing stations). It does not make any sense!
Oh and I will do good in avoiding giving my money to those criminals in the banks, wherever I can. Terrible what these bankers got away with and then the government gives them money too... Criminals, all together!
Government subsidies. It makes perfect sense.Skipjack wrote:ToD- pricing?
Anyway, so PV cells are a long way from being cost effective (if it goes after me) and even further away if it goes after Kiteman. So why the hell are we wasting our money on them?
I mean, so many people are putting them on their roofs and a lot of public electric equipment here is powered by solar cells (some street lamps in parks and those dran parking fee billing stations). It does not make any sense!
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.
Time of Day. Higher price when demand is high, lower at other times of day.Skipjack wrote:ToD- pricing?
The government can steal enough money from the wage slaves to bribe anyone to do things that are not cost effective. They're called subsidies. They screw up the body economic like opiates screw up the body human. And BOTH bodies develop tolerances so BOTH opiates need bigger and bigger doses. Because they are both poisons, eventually they kill the body.Anyway, so PV cells are a long way from being cost effective (if it goes after me) and even further away if it goes after Kiteman. So why the hell are we wasting our money on them?
I mean, so many people are putting them on their roofs and a lot of public electric equipment here is powered by solar cells (some street lamps in parks and those dran parking fee billing stations). It does not make any sense!
Criminals all together.. A-MEN!Oh and I will do good in avoiding giving my money to those criminals in the banks, wherever I can. Terrible what these bankers got away with and then the government gives them money too... Criminals, all together!