Some years back, I read an article in one of the science journals about an experiment with silicone sheets and lasers. The team was trying to modify the silicone with the lasers to produce faster computer processors. They would take the sheets of silicone and hit it with high intensity laser beams...the result was that spikes would form on the silicone sheets. These spiked sheets of silicone did not work for the intended goals...ie, faster processors...but it did do amazing things for solar panels. Those spikes on the silicone greatly increased the surface area of the silicone by a considerable amount..and that increased surface area allowed smaller solar panels to produce the same amount of electricity as much larger conventional solar panels. I can't remember the exact amount of change..but it was something on the magnitude of 2 or 3 times.....that is a solar panel measuring 1 foot by 1 foot using the spiked silicone produced the same amount of electricity as a solar panel of 2 foot by 2 foot or 3 foot by 3 foot when made of the normal non-spiked silicone. The team had plans to use an even higher power laser to produce taller spikes to see just how far this this technique could be pushed....imagine a 1 foot by 1 foot solar panel producing the same amount of electricity as 10 square feet of conventional solar panel. This would drive down the cost of installing solar electric systems in residential applications..not initially, but once it became more common place the price would go down. Heck, they even have solar panel SHINGLES...yes shingles that have solar electric capability...why don't we hear more about them?
What needs to be done is to stop wasting so much money holding symposiums on Global Warming and start spending that money on research for alternative fuel sources. Enhanced solar panels (as in the above discussion), improved and cheaper storage batteries for solar electrical systems, research into the Seeder Nuclear Plants.....nuclear plants that were just beginning to be developed at the end of the Cold War...plants that had the ability to take "spent" fuel rods...which still have some radioactive activity...and reprocess them into new full-strength fuel rods...the left over material was 100% inert with NO radioactive material in them. These Seeder Plants were amazing...but the end of the Cold War cut America's investment into Nuclear research down to nothing and these plants were pushed into the dark closets of scientific research. Geo-thermal is an area that has seen little research....heck, geo-thermal heating and cooling systems for residential use...they are pricier to install than conventional gas furnaces, but the energy and cost savings from using them are huge and well worth the initial investment. If a greater focus were put onto this type of heating and cooling system, they would become more common place and the price would drop. Hydro-electric, wind turbines....so many sources for renewable, cheap energy....I better stop before I get on a soap box and start bashing politicians of every make and model. And the oil companies....best not get myself started on what I think about oil companies.
OBIO
What needs to be done is to stop wasting so much money holding symposiums on Global Warming and start spending that money on research for alternative fuel sources. Enhanced solar panels (as in the above discussion), improved and cheaper storage batteries for solar electrical systems, research into the Seeder Nuclear Plants.....nuclear plants that were just beginning to be developed at the end of the Cold War...plants that had the ability to take "spent" fuel rods...which still have some radioactive activity...and reprocess them into new full-strength fuel rods...the left over material was 100% inert with NO radioactive material in them. These Seeder Plants were amazing...but the end of the Cold War cut America's investment into Nuclear research down to nothing and these plants were pushed into the dark closets of scientific research. Geo-thermal is an area that has seen little research....heck, geo-thermal heating and cooling systems for residential use...they are pricier to install than conventional gas furnaces, but the energy and cost savings from using them are huge and well worth the initial investment. If a greater focus were put onto this type of heating and cooling system, they would become more common place and the price would drop. Hydro-electric, wind turbines....so many sources for renewable, cheap energy....I better stop before I get on a soap box and start bashing politicians of every make and model. And the oil companies....best not get myself started on what I think about oil companies.
OBIO
