Solar power absurd

Thirteen-year-old patents solar efficiency breakthrough. Ever wonder who the future belongs to?

USING FIBONACCI SEQUENCES

Thirteen-year-old patents solar efficiency breakthrough. Ever wonder who the future belongs to?
USING FIBONACCI SEQUENCES

"Hope springs eternal!"
They also used to think they could turn lead into gold with just the right formula.
Gold spray paint was as close as they got.

(UPDATE: After this story broke over the weekend, at least one science blog is debunking these claims as impossible. As is the case with many stories on the Internet, take it with a grain of salt…)

Most importantly, by mistake he did not measure power outputs from the solar cells. Instead he measured voltage, without a load attached ("open circuit"). They are barely related -- in solar cells, voltage is actually almost a constant, independent of power.

The actual power delivered by a solar cell is not linearly related to the open-circuit voltage; actually, as a semiconductor, it has a horribly nonlinear relationship. Here's the current-voltage (I-V) curve:


[National Instruments] Photovoltaic Cell I-V Characterization Theory

VOC denotes the "open circuit" voltage: when there is no load attached, and no current flows (I = 0). Power goes as V*I; a real solar system will maximize efficiency, by working at the point on the I-V curve which maximies power (PMAX).

The kid is measuring VOC. As it happens, this is practically independent of power output! Here's how the I-V curve changes with incident solar power ("irradiance", areal density of radiation in [W/m2]). As this solar module datasheet shows, VOC is almost a constant, regardless of incident light!

Edited by Rogerdodger, 22 August 2011 - 09:35 AM.

U.S. Tops in Fossil Fuel

The United States has largest reserves on Earth, according to a report from the Congressional Research Service.

Thanks to the new technique of hydraulic fracturing (fracking), which makes it possible to recover oil and natural gas trapped in shale, the United States now has more reserves of oil, coal and natural gas than any other nation, concluded the Congressional Research Service.

"Shale gas doesn't change everything, it's much more important than that," said British energy expert Nick Grealy.

If these resources were exploited properly, America could be energy independent very soon. Millions of well-paying jobs would be created. New tax revenues would flood the Treasury. The cost of gasoline and electricity would plummet.

But the government forbids oil drilling in most of Alaska, most areas offshore and much of the West. Regulations proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency would destroy hundreds of thousands of jobs in the coal and electric power industries, and send electric bills soaring.

so-called "renewables" require massive government subsidies to produce little energy. Studies in Spain, Britain and Italy indicate each subsidized "green" job costs, respectively, 2.2, 3.7 and 4.8 jobs in the private sector.

Energy

Oil sands pipeline project from Canada

Canadians can do what they want with their oil in Canada, and there’s little American protesters can do to stop them

That, presumably, is why the White House announced today that the pipeline will go ahead, greens and New York Times editorial board notwithstanding. There was no other rational choice he could make.
No significant political force in the United States is as incompetently organized and led as the greens. Republicans should rejoice; green extremism, hysteria and incompetence seriously undercuts Democratic coherence and credibility. That is the point that TPM and its allies need to be making; until the rest of the left knocks some sense into green heads, the environmentalists will continue to serve as one of the Republican Party’s most helpful auxiliaries.

Pipeline

IMAGINE HOW TODAY WOULD BE DIFFERENT IF THE TREASURY FOUND AN EXTRA $14 TRILLION IN GOLD RESERVES!
Just as the Beverly Hillbillies went from starvation to untold wealth so too are those STATES extracting GOLD from the dirt.

It's amazing how AMERICA'S HEALTH AND COMMON GOOD WOULD benefit from Black Gold, that BEAUTIFUL ORGANIC NATURAL TREASURE: CRUDE OIL!

Texas Tea.


North Dakota enjoys the spoils of full employment

Budget deficits, slashed services and higher taxes have been the norm across the country during the past three years as states scramble to make up for revenue shortfalls. Not in North Dakota. Investments in education, health and human services, the environment and transportation will boost total state spending by 12.5 percent, or $1.1 billion, during the next biennium.

Geology, not tax policy, explains North Dakota's incredible run. They've been drilling for oil in the Williston Basin since the early 1950s, but new horizontal drilling technologies have allowed prospectors to tap into the rich Bakken Formation. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the region holds about 4.3 billion barrels of recoverable reserves of oil, larger than all other current oil assessments in the lower 48 states.
North Dakota is now the fourth-largest oil producer in the United States. The number of people working in its oil industry has tripled since 2007, to more than 16,000, and the growth in jobs since then can be almost entirely accounted for by the state's oil industry.
According to the North Dakota Petroleum Council, crude oil taxes on production and extraction brought in about $750 million in state revenue. In addition, the industry spent $1.49 billion in taxable sales and purchases. The state tax department has said that "every $1 increase or decrease in the price of oil impacts gross state revenue by $9.3 million a year."

Edited by Rogerdodger, 27 August 2011 - 08:21 PM.

$535 Spent Million on Solyndra Solar Energy Firm in 2010; Firm Went Bankrupt Today; Pricetag $486,363 Per Job Saved for 18 Months

The federal government should get out of the business of picking technology and "green" winners. Government backing of alternate energy companies has been nothing short of disastrous.

In this case, it is rather amazing how fast Solyndra wasted over half a billion US taxpayer dollars, so fast I suspect fraud.

In general, if companies cannot survive without government subsidies then they should not survive at all.

Solar

For better or worse, the free market seems to work best. Government subsidized anything always turns into just one more slush fund for the looters and moochers to divide up the spoils. It would be real interesting to discover where and with whom most of that that $1/2 Billion wound up. Imagine if they would have built a $1/2 Billion modern oil refinery. We all would have seen that money returned many fold for years to come in reduced fuel costs for taxpayers. While creating permanent jobs.

Edited by Rogerdodger, 31 August 2011 - 08:51 PM.

It's the Usual Suspects.
The $1/2 Billion government "loan" was a slush fund repayment for Tulsa's own Kaiser Söze, who bundled political contributions for politicians.

Current investigations are underway.
Business as usual while our children and grandchildren will cough up the money.

Government auditors had questioned the wisdom of the administration's loan guarantees to the company, backed in part by capital from a group controlled by Kaiser, a billionaire Tulsa oilman, banker and political fundraiser.
In July, a House subcommittee subpoenaed White House documents related to the guarantee, and after Wednesday's developments, lawmakers vowed to continue investigating.
The Treasury Department provided Solyndra's loan, on the assurance of the Energy Department. The terms were reviewed in advance by the White House Office of Management and Budget, and almost all of the $535 million has been disbursed to Solyndra.

Officials with the George Kaiser Family Foundation did not return phone calls late Wednesday.
George Soros was also unavailable for comment about his lucky Brazil oil investment.

Fracking is obviously the way to go. Why worry about contaminating water. I reckon we should revert to whale oil as a lamp source. If it was good enough for Jonah then we should kill more whales. The whole idea of new energy which is renewable is ludicrous. Ever heard of Moore's law in regard to computer power. It suggested and still works on the principle of halfing cost wihile doubling power. Why won't that work for renewable energy? It will but how about we do the Canute thing and try and hold back the tide. Flat earthing is a philosophy that appeals to flat minds. Whether oil runs out in 20 years or 200 years, the fact is it runs out as does coal etc. Why anyone would oppose renewable energy is beyond me.

Why anyone would oppose renewable energy is beyond me.

How long have you been off the grid?