Open Project to Develop Renewable Energy System

rohar writes "We have been working on a system that combines some existing indirect solar technologies to build a location independent, renewable, reliable and economically feasible indirect solar electrical power generation system. The idea is to 'roll-your-own' geothermal source by capturing heat from the ambient air with a solar powered absorption heat pump, store it underground and generate electricity from the air cooling convection. When the air is cooler the stored heat is then used in a reverse process to generate electricity by transferring the heat back to the air when it is cooler (at night or seasonal). There are many additional benefits including clean water capture from the "dehumidifier" effect of the air cooling, construction from common materials and thermal storage that may be incorporated into dwelling heat systems." After reading over their description, how likely do you think it is to work?

How Likely?

[Umbral Blot]

37.62% according to my calculations. But I haven't taken quantum effects into account yet, so I may be slightly off.

I'll let you know...

[advocate_one]

just as soon as I get back from the patent office...

Re:Thin Air

[kfg]

And i suppose you think that generating electricity from wind turbines or solar panels is impossible too?

I suppose you think it's impossible to turn lead bars into gold?

KFG

Re:Thin Air

[Soko]

So you're going to generate electricity and clean water out of think air.

Hmmm... think air...think air... *SNAP* Hey, Al gore invented the Internet and is all about green energy, maybe I should think like him. Here goes:

With Global Warming, we've got a lot of extra heat in the air - meaning that the atmosphere is both warmer and wetter than would be before we stared using energy stored in hydrocarbons to power our economy and release all the trapped CO2 back into the air. On first glance the method in the article looks to be at least a plausible way to recover some of that excess latent heat, with the side effect of removing water vapour from the cooled air as well. The benefit to the Dwelling heat system is that it puts the excess heat back underground from whence it came - like an oil well - and provides long term storage in a safe and relatively cheap manner. If they can work out all the problems sufficiently this just may work in a way beneficial to us economically and environmentally.

So, yeah - electricity and water from the think air. Thanks Al Gore!

Soko

Re:Thin Air

[yada21]

Natural gold has intrinsic value. Artificial gold is by definition a fiat currency, and henceforth is worth no more than the paper it's printed on.

Re:Gold from human shit - numbers are off?

[Elrac]

(280 to 56,000 g/kg in dry matter)

So, in units people feel comfortable with, there's at least half a pound of gold in two pounds of shit? And under favorable circumstances, shit is 5600% gold? Something smells around here, and it's not fishy.

Micrograms, perhaps?

Here's an idea

[SnarfQuest]

I'm going to hook up my dog to one of those retractable leashes, and attach that to one of those generators used for the OLPC. Then, when a squarrel runs across the lawn, I'll generate enough electricity to run most of my appliances. Should work, as long as the supply of squarrels doesn't run out.