Mobile Energy: Solar & Wind Power On-the-go

[klavis]

[citation][nom]jellico[/nom]Orbital collectors would be very cool, but I thought they still hadn't worked out the downlink power transmission. If you use a focused laser or microwave to transmit the power down to earth, you'll lose too much going through the atmosphere. We would need an orbital tether, but here again, the loss via heat of power transmission over that great a distance would be non-trivial.[/citation]

Actually no, all the science involved with this a reality has been around for decades. It's possible, they have known how to do it. It's just now becoming financially particle to put the knowledge into practice.

Seems that a private company will may be the first to pull it off.

http/www.examiner.com/x-8199-Breakthrough-Energy-Examiner~y2009m7d4-First-spacetoearth-solar-power-station-targeted-for-Oct-2010

 

[jevon]

[citation][nom]jellico[/nom]offers no practical solutions for our energy problems.[/citation]

This is just for recreational purposes (mobile hikers, campers etc) not meant to solve our energy problems on the scale you're talking about

Someone on a lake we have property on installed his own solar panel over top of the turbine swivel part of the smallish wind tower he already had. The solar panel is attached sort of like a roof 'behind' the blades over the turbine, so wind direction doesn't matter it still gets the sun. Probably wouldn't be a practical way to make it dismantle easily so it could be portable though.

 

[enewmen]

[citation][nom]jellico[/nom]I hate to be a spoil-sport, but stuff like this is really just an exercise in "that's kinda cool" but offers no practical solutions for our energy problems.As I've said before solar and wind (even combined) are a bust. We currently get 49% of our electricity from coal and we (the US) consume 2.75 MILLION tons of coal PER DAY. Additionally, we consume over 20 MILLION barrels of oil PER DAY. When you wrap your head around those numbers, you quickly reach the inescapable conclusion that wind, solar, bio-fuels, etc., just won't cut it! Our only hope for deliverance from fossil fuels is for someone to invent a revolutionary new technology. So, while we're waiting for naquadah reactors, zero-point energy, matter-antimatter reactors, and cold-fusion, the only thing that even comes close is nuclear power.[/citation]

People can just use less?

 

[Mark Heath]

I hate to be a spoil-sport, but stuff like this is really just an exercise in "that's kinda cool" but offers no practical solutions for our energy problems.

As I've said before solar and wind (even combined) are a bust. We currently get 49% of our electricity from coal and we (the US) consume 2.75 MILLION tons of coal PER DAY. Additionally, we consume over 20 MILLION barrels of oil PER DAY. When you wrap your head around those numbers, you quickly reach the inescapable conclusion that wind, solar, bio-fuels, etc., just won't cut it! Our only hope for deliverance from fossil fuels is for someone to invent a revolutionary new technology. So, while we're waiting for naquadah reactors, zero-point energy, matter-antimatter reactors, and cold-fusion, the only thing that even comes close is nuclear power.

I wouldn't mind having a naquadah reactor

top gear had something on hydrogen based car that was actually good enough to use and much better than electric. What about hydrogen based power supplemented with wind/solar etc?

 

[safcmanfr]

[citation][nom]shin0bi272[/nom]proof of concept - winproduct usefulness - fail[/citation]


Its not a fail if you are on a camping holiday and need to charge your mobile phone....

Useless for home use though, I'll give you that much.

 

[eccentric909]

[citation][nom]jevon[/nom]This is just for recreational purposes (mobile hikers, campers etc) not meant to solve our energy problems on the scale you're talking about Someone on a lake we have property on installed his own solar panel over top of the turbine swivel part of the smallish wind tower he already had. The solar panel is attached sort of like a roof 'behind' the blades over the turbine, so wind direction doesn't matter it still gets the sun. Probably wouldn't be a practical way to make it dismantle easily so it could be portable though.[/citation]

That is kind of what I was thinking, instead of mounting the solar panels on the blades, why not "wrap" (with flexible solar panels) or mount it around the post and the hub of the propeller, basically any of the non-moving portions of the windmill. Of course, this also wouldn't relate to the one in the article so much, but a standard windmill from a windmill farm. It's not like sunlight is being blocked out of a windmill farm very often, considering the open fields they build them in.

 

[jellico]

[citation][nom]enewmen[/nom]People can just use less?[/citation]
That's not going to happen, and you know it. People do not want to live an 18th century lifestyle. I sure as hell don't. And, I would venture to guess that 99% of the people on TH wouldn't want to either.

At this point in time, we have two choices. Accept that fossil fuels will be our primary source of energy until something better is invented ("alternative energy" will NEVER be more than a percent or two of our total production); OR, we start building nuclear power plants... and not just one here or there, but hundreds! Hopefully, that zero-point energy will be coming down the line in a decade or two.

 

[wonspur]

once solar technology becomes cheap enough to accommodate the everyday household it will eventually make a difference, until then it wont. Also, this reliance on oil is making me absolutely sick. How else can we do a days travel without a car? where i live we have no public transportation and no other means of transportation other than a gas powered car. I want alternatives that wont rape my pockets everytime i turn it on.

 

[Tyellock]

[citation][nom]aneasytarget[/nom]If the blades are moving, how much solar energy can they absorb?[/citation]

it might work better then stationary solar panels, moving around it should catch all the light rays

/sarcasm

 

[Guest]

This design is not efficient!
Seldomly does the wind go in the same direction as the sunsrays are coming from.
And though the blades may turn in the wind, chances are that the sun's rays are coming from an opposite or very angled direction; that the solar cells do not receive enough light to convert.