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Majroj...
...please go to my
consolidated comments for my response.
posted by
arGee
on November 30, 2003 at 9:04 AM
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Isn't it a hoot when people are scared of hydrogen?
Gasoline, in the forms we dispense and use it, is much more dangerous, and handled by/sold to people with junior high school "educations". Gasoline created similar fears when it was catchng on, versus kerosene and other POL's. And they were seen as being worse than coal.
Two drawbacks to petroleum fuels' production we will benefit from reducing or eliminating: have you ever been downwind from a refinery? And, how much can our military and international aid budgets be reduced if we are no longer forced to stabilize/control other people's countries for our petroleum? Damn stupid to burn perfectly good petrochemicals when we can use them for plastics, lubricants, medicines, etc.
posted by
majroj
on November 27, 2003 at 11:57 PM
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An interesting suggestion, Ifyou-please
I suspect this idea is beyond a patentable concept. Of course, my original paper was published over twenty years ago (that's hard to believe!), but the technology is just now coming online for implementing my version of this concept. The original concept employed microwaves to beam the energy earthward, and used large rectennas to receive and convert the microwave energy into useable electricity. The concept did not need to beam down at sea, although equatorial or near equatorial rectennas still would be necessary. At the time fears were expressed about the possible danger of both the microwave beams and the laser beams. Although these fears appeared reasonable on the surface, practically, they were of little concern, except to the kind of idiots who want to protect the "pristine environment of space" from radiation emanating from man-made devices.
What really differentiates my concept from earlier ideas is that I use the solar energy collected in orbit and beamed to earth in concentrated laser beams to generate hydrogen, and then transport the hydrogen to port terminals for further pipeline distribution. I show that this transportation is much less expensive than traditional electric grid distribution of power, and very much more flexible. I also show that the overall cost of power generated this way over the lifetime of the major system components is negligibly small when compared to oil, coal, gas, or nuclear generated electricity. AND it causes virtually no atmospheric or other kind of pollution.
posted by
arGee
on October 27, 2003 at 8:22 PM
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Mr. Williscroft,
Could you design a system that implements your concept of the "network of solar power satellites that beam their collected energy to equatorial marine stations for conversion to hydrogen"? If you were to do this in full detail with a visual layout for the business dummy to peruse, would it be a concept that you could patent and sell to someone interested in creating a new and improved automotive industry? Or are you a teacher of the subject with publications already in circulation?
posted by
TARZANA
on October 27, 2003 at 2:08 PM
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