Nano-tech Solar Cell research.

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Many people are optimistic about using nano technology for solar energy sources. On going research is looking good so far.

http://www.earthtechling.com/2011/02/na ... niversity/

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I prefer the idea of building societies that utilise less energy.

We got spoiled on fossil fuels, and built our wasteful world around it.

you are already utilizing the sun, sun made the plants and life that produced oil. so efficiency of the process is important and I don't think this will make a huge difference.

what would make a difference now is getting a method to produce cheap and easily used solar cells (an efficient too). something that can be just glued on, or painted so you can cover all the surfaces and also a method to efficiently store and convert this energy.

sometimes i think invention leads to more harm than good, and in particular these small things. now everyone is changing their phone and tv every couple of years. everyday life produces so much waste and it is piling up. and at the same time no big breakthroughs are getting through, we still drive combustion car or electric motor cars, batteries are still pretty much the same technology as 100 years ago mixed with some nano buzz-words. i want to see some big new stuff. it is really a shame.

Agree with both posters.

Less energy for sure.

Have either of you heard of the supergrid concept?

To put it simply, we would put massive solar arrays in sunny locations and have massive wind farms where appropriate. All of connected in cross continental 'supergrids' as the term has become.

Europe Africa and Asia would be together. North and South America would be. No reason Russia could not connect to North America. Australia could be use sun and wind, plus connect to New Zealand.

This just leaves a few remote islands which can use wind and solar possibly, and have disease back up generators.

It is all about accurate forecasting so we can gain a better idea of where and when we need to divert power. We'd need an increase of data on power usage and wider spread weather prediction tech but it is doable.

Greenpeace wrote a 74 page (made it about 50 pages in myself but got the gist of it ) report detailing everything. It would require lots of changes to the grid structure and takes into account massive energy efficiency measures.

The first half a dozen pages outlines the basic principles so visit that for a better idea if a full report is a bit much.

http://www.greenpeace.org/international ... bles-24-7/

The EU supports the idea too.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2 ... -supergrid

http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/20 ... aster-plan

When do we start building?

EDIT: with the addition of a new type of chip to replace BIOS being released in the near future, cutting power requirements of computing devices significantly, it makes it more realistic to be able to set up global systems for monitoring weather and distributing power effectively.

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don't like it. huge areas covered would change the complete ecostructure there. it is the same savage way that we are doing now. okay better since it is solar but still need pipes (smaller though) and infrastructure. I am for the way to transform to the local ways of making energy and stuff (I know it is crazy). Same way the organisms can make energy and create new molecules in the body.

and if you think that lower power of processors is our problem, I mean really?

If you want to look at the report it covers what would happen in localised 'smart grids.'

Here is a brief outline of a smart grid

"is an electricity grid that connects decentralised
renewable energy sources and co-generation and distributes
power highly efficiently. It is an electricity network that uses
distributed energy resources and advanced communication
and control technologies to deliver electricity more costeffectively,
with lower greenhouse intensity and in response to
consumer needs. Typically, smaller forms of electricity
generation are combined with energy management to balance
out the load of all the users on the system. Small generators
include wind turbines, solar panels, micro turbines, fuel cells
and co-generation (combined heat and power). These types of
energy sources can be closer to the users, rather than one
large centralised source a far. Smart grids are a way to get
massive amounts of renewable energy with no greenhouse
emissions into the system, and to allow decommissioning of
older, centralised power sources. Advanced types of control
and management technologies for the electricity grid can also
make it run more efficiently overall. These include things like
smart electricity meters that show real-time use and costs
and can respond to remote communication and dynamic
electricity pricing."

It goes into more descriptive details in the report.

Even if where you live is not ideal for certain things such as solar or wind, everything can be utilised.

For the smart grid proposal for Africa, Asia and Europe most of the solar arrays would be in southern Europe and in the Sahara desert. The arrays itself in this case wont really mess up infra-structure design. North and South America I know less about. The raw materials are already available in the desert (silicon) so building the factories there is the smartest idea.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-12-sah ... world.html
http://www.diginfo.tv/2010/11/24/10-0135-r-en.php

Yes power requirements of processors is the worst threat we have ever faced

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The larger problem I foresee is more along the lines of getting the power from where it's made to where it's needed. We need many more HVDC, High Voltage, Direct Current transmission lines, before renewable energy is anything more than a meaningless feel-good exercise.

yes, si is just sio2 however the energy cost of making a pure crystal involves huge temperatures, clean rooms and bunch of other things that is why it is so expensive. good is that it can run for a long time and can use some of the existing infrastructure. but i hate the infrastructure. i want self-sufficient house without pipes in and out.

Was replying before and my damn PC crashed. Thank society for outdated soon to be obsolete computers. never should have put windows 7 on my current system.

anyway, with the potential increases in solar efficiency from nano solar cells, it is my hope once we produce a certain amount, that the same technology can be used to power the production process and it should accelerate from there.

speaking of renewable homes, the best thing to do is to use a rain catch system which includes a filtration system for grey water (from showers, baths etc) so it all gets re-used. solar is hopefully soon a lot cheaper to set up. there are also advancements in wind technology, on a smaller scale last time i checked.

Humanure can be re-used as a fertiliser:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanure

for insulation hemp panels are ideal. low carbon footprint to manufacture and very insulating in the long term. lots of stuff can be made from hemp.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il7yw0JFs5c[/youtube]

there is also the venus project approach to redesigning cities, but it may not happen for quite some time.
http://www.thevenusproject.com/en/technology

Hu

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couldn't watch the video but I guess they modified hemp. also if you are following TED there was a guy who desigined a method,basically a chemical that connects an organic material (whatever is available at that part of the world) for packaging (degradable material). That was smart idea since it uses much less of manmade chemicals but puts them in right places.

it is actually silly that for isolation people put bunch of material when the best thermal isolation comes from the void space i.e. vacuum.

regarding the cities there are lots of the ideas about self-contained green cities. i would like to see a container city i.e. each unit is self contained. walls made out of aerogel (excellent thermal isolation and passes light), plants or better algae along the walls to provide food. and water circulation inside the house (grey water and pupu water recycled too) needs a fast design system (composting and stuff is slow). there is a guy from mit who developed water electrolysis witha cheap catalyst that can make energy (O2 and H2 for fuel cells). the system works with dirty water.

I saw that packaging on TED. The two other things i;ve never heard of though.

Awesome idea to create vaccum walls, but what would it take to produce and maintain it? plus it is a pain in the ass if there is a hole in it. i guess this is why hemp is used more often at the moment.

what you mentioned in the third paragraph sounds amazing.

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even the aerogel has the great isolation properties and it is a low density silica. you don't even need vacuum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Aerog ... ltered.jpg


the guy for catalysis has a project energy for one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Nocera .

Solar energy alone would have an impact, but I suspect it would only be moderate. It's like the hybrid concept relating to cars. It is true that hybrid vehicles use less fuel, but far more than electric-powered or fuel-cell vehicles. Alternative energy sources tend to have similar paths in progression.

Secondly, most energy plans are isolated from one another. That makes little to no sense in energy forecasting, in that it would need to be integrated across the landscape. Architectural differences and what not would need to be taken into account. The way cities are spread out would need to be taken in account. Given most landscape patterns in the US, alternative energy sources are likely to generate problematic solutions in the long term. Cities should be designed in circular formations, with the most important services laid out in the middle, and with the close-knit outer layers being the housing pattern. This would prevent long-distance travel for many people, would save on open space, and would put an end to sprawl. There has been some considerable research done on this, and like usual, most of those involved rarely find the necessary means to make their ideas public.

Artificially-intelligent, architectural design. That's the way to go. As well as pushing for a move away from investor-owned energy companies, whose primary purpose is profit on an often global scale.

@AnotherOne, that is cool stuff.....

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