DOE Shines $14M on Solar Energy Research 164
coondoggie writes "Eleven university solar research projects aimed at developing advanced solar photovoltaic (PV) technology manufacturing processes and products got a $14 million boost today from the Dept. of Energy. Photovoltaic-based solar cells convert sunlight directly into electricity, and are made of semiconductor materials similar to those used in computer chips. When sunlight is absorbed by these materials, the solar energy knocks electrons loose from their atoms, allowing the electrons to flow through the material to produce electricity."
Who modded this down. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:On the basis of the evidence... (Score:5, Informative)
We should be building some of those, not more of the current (ancient) reactor designs.
Re:This has to be good news (Score:2, Informative)
Funny enough, Bush proposed this back in 2001 [whitehouse.gov], right after he took office. But everybody was so upset that Bush and Cheney would talk with oil companies when drafting an energy.
Yet another case where Bush did a lot but nobody noticed, like aid for Africa [time.com].
Re:$14M? (Score:2, Informative)
- the amount of PWh needed
- some common sense
- and the research center [zafh.net] I work in.
I guess it's still not enough for you, so:
- hydropower is at its peak in many countries (e.g. in the EU) and comes with some massive environmental drawbacks (e.g. "Three Gorges Dam").
- biomass is surely interesting, but should not put more pressure on food supply chain and should be almost carbon-neutral. In Germany, customers already need to import wood pellets from Italy and France in good ol' diesel trucks. Biomass is not renewable anymore in this case!
- windpower provides between 2 to 5 times as less GWh/(km.year) as photovoltaics panels. Plus, you cannot use it right next to where it's needed.
- geothermal? use it wherever possible, but it does not represent so much either.
I go look for some more sources and I come back!
(I already have some, but are mostly in French or German...)
Re:On the basis of the evidence... (Score:3, Informative)
IIRC they keep the fuel in a hot liquid state and basically keep it covered in molten sodium. They use convection for "pumping" the coolant and can process most nuclear wastes as fuel.
I've always thought the fast integrals were good ideas too, if for nothing else than to process our currently stored wastes.
Re:This has to be good news (Score:3, Informative)
Even over long distances, the losses are only around 2-3%.
Given that 2-3% is actually a very large amount of energy, it still would not justify the energy (and dollar) losses of maintaining a super conducting grid.
Huge mass production of cheap, fairly efficient solar cells could might all of the worlds energy problems.
Re:This has to be good news (Score:2, Informative)
I don't think this is realistic with current technology (although I haven't been keeping an eye on what is state of the art).
Superconductors are limited in the amount of current they can carry. IIRC high temperature superconductors are particularly poor in this respect as well as not forming very good wires. But liquid He is so expensive, rare, and energy costly to produce that "normal" temperature superconductors aren't going to be efficient either.
Tim.
Re:This has to be good news (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Stable energy sources (Score:4, Informative)
Combine that with geothermal heat pumps that drive a radiant heating system (preferably built into the floors for maximum efficiency) and some wind power (a few small wind generators won't do too much damage to the local environment but can help a little bit) and some heat recovery methods built into the plumbing of the house and most people will reduce power consumption by as much as a third or even half since most of our energy usage actually comes from heating a house or water for our personal comfort.
Solar doesn't have to be the "silver bullet" that so many opponents use as a reason not to fund it. It just has to be part of the solution.
Re:Stable energy sources (Score:3, Informative)
We need space elevators for cheap orbital lift.
Re:This has to be good news (Score:1, Informative)
Re:This has to be good news (Score:3, Informative)
AC got the head start because it's easy to use transformers to raise voltage for transmission lines (high voltage = low current = less IxIxR resistive losses) and transform back down at the user end. Now that we have modern power electronics we can use inverters to do the same with DC.