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[bob ford <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

That makes sense, James.  Now I have to go look up dilithium crystal 
again.....bobford


--- On Fri, 10/24/08, Clansgian AT wmconnect.com <Clansgian AT wmconnect.com> wrote:

> From: Clansgian AT wmconnect.com <Clansgian AT wmconnect.com>
> Subject: Re: [Homestead] wild new solar advances coming
> To: bobford79 AT yahoo.com
> Date: Friday, October 24, 2008, 6:23 PM
> > >New solar cell material achieves almost 100%
> efficiency, could solve 
> > world-wide energy problems 
> 
> Not even close.  First, 100% efficiency or anything near it
> is science 
> fiction.  Dig deeply enough and you will find some
> grant-monger beneath this.  Just 
> give me enough money and I'll achieve 100% solar
> efficiency, some day, maybe, 
> depends on how much grant money you've got for me to
> keep dangling the carrot 
> in front of you.
> 
> Then suppose you achieve it.  There is 833 watts of energy
> in one square yard 
> of direct sunlight at high noon under ideal conditions.  No
> more.  Owing to 
> the realities of clouds, seasons, night, etc. the average
> during a 24 hr period 
> is much less EVEN if you achieved 100% efficiency.
> 
> Plus with solar, as Don has pointed out, if you can use it
> on the spot you 
> have to store it.  That is, when the direct noon sun on
> solstice is giving you 
> that 833 (theoretical) watts, you don't need the
> electric lighting.  So even if 
> your solar cells achieve 100% efficiency, you storage and
> delivery system 
> does not.
> 
> And the last disparage of this is that the more cells you
> try to make the 
> more scarce become the materials and the price goes up
> sharply.
> 
> No one is actually coming up with the equivalent of
> dilithium crystals.
> 
> 
> James