'Major discovery' from MIT primed to unleash solar revolution

[Movieman]

Great idea, and i also would like to see that, but electric supply company and the FBCs would hate that with passion. Just as shintai mentioned this is not a technical problem but more like a financial problem.

Yes, I agree on that also but there does come a time for the "greater good" and if enough people stand up and demand it, it will be done.
Get 50 million people in the US to sign a petition stating that they demand action on these issues in 18 months or those elected officials will NOT be reelected and you'd see fast action.

[Shintai]

There will be an ice age soon. At least that is what it looks like.
Rich country's have not much to worry but the third world country's do.
The 'ice age' is just a 'Recovery' function of our planet Earth, or a Reset button.

Its just sad to see the collective humanity is so stupid, and can only be compared to lemmings following the leader over the edge into certain dead.

Overharvesting, over population, over usage. bigger bigger bigger, more more more.

The greed is endless.

We are a few billion too much anyway. So perhaps its good.

[ownage]

Where I live, our city been building an emission neutral neighbourhood. Lot's of green, and ALLOT of solar pannels ( every house has their own ), and central heating with geo storage. Makes me kind of less pessimistic about being able to still walk here in 20 years or that rising sea water would ensure we'd have to swim.. If they hurry with these innovations, the future is looking very dry ..erhm.. I mean good

A few blocks away from where i live they also have an emission neutral neighborhood build a bit more then 10 years ago. I heard they are not very pleased with it. It does help but it needs allot of maintenance and after 20 years you have to replace all solar panels which cost more then you would have spend on normal electricity in those 20 years. Some of the inhabitants got rid of the solar panels because they where not satisfied.
To me it sounds like a good idea but maybe the current technology is maybe not far enough? Any idea how people in your city feel about there solar panels?

[Shintai]

A few blocks away from where i live they also have an emission neutral neighborhood build a bit more then 10 years ago. I heard they are not very pleased with it. It does help but it needs allot of maintenance and after 20 years you have to replace all solar panels which cost more then you would have spend on normal electricity in those 20 years. Some of the inhabitants got rid of the solar panels because they where not satisfied.
To me it sounds like a good idea but maybe the current technology is maybe not far enough? Any idea how people in your city feel about there solar panels?

This is the problem 101 in a nutshell.

Options:
A. This is cheaper now, but we all die in the future.
B. This cost more now, but we all live happily in the future.

Funny we take option A.

Its like the slide form the white house about it. It was a scale. The entire earth on one side, and yummy goldbars on the other side. Mmmmm....gold bars!

Yet we just destroy out foundation of living. Then those goldbars aint useful anymore...

[gallardo]

The 'ice age' is just a 'Recovery' function of our planet Earth, or a Reset button.

Exactly! That is what the people who bash global warming don't get. We're not hurting the environment. We're hurting ourselves. Bugs, plants and critters die anyway, but we're going to have a much harder time ourselves. As you said, people in 3rd world countries will even die. But the Earth as a whole will be fine. Life will go on, just in much harsher conditions for all of us. And for what? To have a penis measuring competition with your neighbour about who has the bigger SUV or who hangs more useless, ugly, kitsch lightbulbs for Christmas.


I salute people who are open to being green. Even if global warming won't kill us or if it's not our fault... it doesn't mean we shouldn't do anything about it.

[Kallenator]

Exactly! That is what the people who bash global warming don't get. We're not hurting the environment. We're hurting ourselves. Bugs, plants and critters die anyway, but we're going to have a much harder time ourselves. As you said, people in 3rd world countries will even die. But the Earth as a whole will be fine. Life will go on, just in much harsher conditions for all of us. And for what? To have a penis measuring competition with your neighbour about who has the bigger SUV or who hangs more useless, ugly, kitsch lightbulbs for Christmas.


I salute people who are open to being green. Even if global warming won't kill us or if it's not our fault... it doesn't mean we shouldn't do anything about it.

Pure gold that sentence. I agree 100% =)

[Hornet331]

Yet we just destroy out foundation of living. Then those goldbars aint useful anymore...

agreed, but i dont think our generation will suffer from that, and thats the main problem. We do something but we dont see the consequences. One reason why i dont plan to set any kids into this world.

[ownage]

This is the problem 101 in a nutshell.

Options:
A. This is cheaper now, but we all die in the future.
B. This cost more now, but we all live happily in the future.

Funny we take option A.

Its like the slide form the white house about it. It was a scale. The entire earth on one side, and yummy goldbars on the other side. Mmmmm....gold bars!

Yet we just destroy out foundation of living. Then those goldbars aint useful anymore...

I hope you don't get me wrong.
I'm all for energy saving but the problem is everyone needs to be convinced to make this world more careful with energy.

Did you know this planet is designed for only 1.5 billion people? Overcrowded? Yes i think so. By designed for 1.5 billion people i mean we could live thousands of years on this planet without major problems if we only had a population of 1.5 billon people.

[Marvin_The_Martian]

A few blocks away from where i live they also have an emission neutral neighborhood build a bit more then 10 years ago. I heard they are not very pleased with it. It does help but it needs allot of maintenance and after 20 years you have to replace all solar panels which cost more then you would have spend on normal electricity in those 20 years. Some of the inhabitants got rid of the solar panels because they where not satisfied.
To me it sounds like a good idea but maybe the current technology is maybe not far enough? Any idea how people in your city feel about there solar panels?

Like been said technology has gone a long way already and solar panels in 20 years have become a multitude more efficient ( don't ask me for numbers idk really ). A big part of it being emission neutral involves allot of green, it's actually more of a park with blocks of housing in between around two lakes, and the fact that the park neutralises so many co2 makes it emission neutral.

I hope you don't get me wrong.
I'm all for energy saving but the problem is everyone needs to be convinced to make this world more careful with energy.

Did you know this planet is designed for only 1.5 billion people? Overcrowded? Yes i think so. By designed for 1.5 billion people i mean we could live thousands of years on this planet without major problems if we only had a population of 1.5 billon people.

To bad that number seems very far away from reality

I salute people who are open to being green. Even if global warming won't kill us or if it's not our fault... it doesn't mean we shouldn't do anything about it.

We don't actually understand everything involved yet, I'm also abit scared that what we can do is going to be to late and that what we might do is influencing the swing in a negative way for us because we don't totally understand it.

Not saying we don't need to do something, just that I'm not really sure on what either? What if a faster heatup like we caused ( imo that's clear ) will also result in a faster cooldown but only if we do x instead of y or even z? ( edit: reading my last post in this thread maybe this goes to much OT for this thread so nm ).

Actually I'm glad I don't have to make those changes.

[strange|ife]

You would end up even worse...and 112F would be nothing. All in the name of money.

where is the proof then?

[Marvin_The_Martian]

where is the proof then?

That's to OT, start a new thread if you doubt climate change

[strange|ife]

That's to OT, start a new thread if you doubt climate change

I dont doubt climate change, but i dont see how being near the apex of sun collection will get hotter in the long term over, say the northern parts of the glovbe that do not see as much sunlight due to the tilt of the planet, unless our planet decides to just tilt by several degree's.

Sure it will be a huge calamity, and it's already starting, im a firm beiliver in the climate change..through natural causes and not man made...perhaps we are a catalyst..nothing more.

look at the little ice age for example..most of the east coast was frozen while the south west had humidity far beyond what they normally would.

we just dont know, and we wont till it happens full swing.

[Shintai]

I dont doubt climate change, but i dont see how being near the apex of sun collection will get hotter in the long term over, say the northern parts of the glovbe that do not see as much sunlight due to the tilt of the planet, unless our planet decides to just tilt by several degree's.

Sure it will be a huge calamity, and it's already starting, im a firm beiliver in the climate change..through natural causes and not man made...perhaps we are a catalyst..nothing more.

look at the little ice age for example..most of the east coast was frozen while the south west had humidity far beyond what they normally would.

we just dont know, and we wont till it happens full swing.

I think you mix north european "ice age" with an ice age. This has nothing to do with an ice age, but simp,y a runa way greenhouse effect.

The reasonw e talk about cie age is that the gulf stream keeps us warm at winter. Thats why there is around 0C in january here in Denmark and not -25C. Its localized.

[adamsleath]

Where I live, our city been building an emission neutral neighbourhood. Lot's of green, and ALLOT of solar pannels ( every house has their own ), and central heating with geo storage.

power to you

solar panels should be bog standard for all new houses imo. as it is a minor %age of total capital cost for a new house or other res. building. i doubt many would argue it is a bad investment, and it can easily be factored into the average mortgage. also govt rebates for green energy, water tanks and the like in aussie

[Hornet331]

Did you know this planet is designed for only 1.5 billion people? Overcrowded? Yes i think so. By designed for 1.5 billion people i mean we could live thousands of years on this planet without major problems if we only had a population of 1.5 billon people.

thats not proven, its a theory.... there are several theories and models around of how much people the earth can support.

Some are very pessemistic, such as your number and some even go as far as saying earth can support an unlimited number of humans (incl. technological advances).

[Shintai]

thats not proven, its a theory.... there are several theories and models around of how much people the earth can support.

Some are very pessemistic, such as your number and some even go as far as saying earth can support an unlimited number of humans (incl. technological advances).

With our current resource usage we are atleast 2 billion too much. 1.5-2billion if everyone should have it like you and me.

Food and resources is the most limiting factor. Right now we are overharvesting and thereby destroying resources to keep up.

But if everyone thought better, used less. Less use and throw away mentality and not buying useless crap. I think we could substain some 4-5billion. But by no way our current 7billion that will be 9 in 2040 or so.

[adamsleath]

Overcrowded? Yes i think so.

i agree, of course, but the thread topic is really about renewable energy and specifically storing solar power; however if you are also connected to a grid network then you dont really need to store your own power as the grid is a backup and you just feed solar electricity back into the grid and pay for any excess you use, and get a credit otherwise.

[asmodean]

unfortunately new breakthroughs only go so far..

read and weep :/
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/

[Shintai]

unfortunately new breakthroughs only go so far..

read and weep :/
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/

Why weep? We got plenty of alternatives. That site just seems to be written by some doomsday wannabee prophet.

[Hornet331]

But if everyone thought better, used less. Less use and throw away mentality and not buying useless crap. I think we could substain some 4-5billion. But by no way our current 7billion that will be 9 in 2040 or so.

then the first thing to do would be closing this forum and we all stay on umpcs.

as for human/earth support, there is way to much data that influences each other, right now the "ecological footprint" is the thing everyone uses as a base for there numbers, but on technological breakthrough and the whole concept is overthrown.

[annihilat0r]

What about microstuttering.....................wait.

[Luka_Aveiro]

What about microstuttering.....................wait.

[Brother Esau]

Solar panels are obnoxiously inefficient, it's best to just move to nuclear energy.

Spoken like a true Anarchist

[Swatrecon_]

[Pyroe_Inc]

Quote: Requiring nothing but abundant, non-toxic natural materials. http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/oxygen-0731.html


Quote: Cobalt is highly toxic and can cause death. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobalt_Poisoning