Solar
A new supermarket in Eugene plans to provide much of its considerable need for kilowatts by means of a rooftop covered by photovoltaics (solar cells). The price of solar panels has dropped enough to make that feasible for a large commercial operation, and the owners deserve unclouded and enormous praise for doing the right thing. We all need to follow that lead.

The problem historically has been price, and the cost will still seem excessive for most of us – though our calculations may well be in error. The MIT Technology Review notes a couple of extremely promising bits of news, processes which hold great promise in bringing the cost of photovoltaics down, way down.

The overriding problem with photovoltaics is the expense and notably toxic process of producing the chips. A chap named Daniel Morse if laboring on the campus of UC Santa Barbara to determine the magic chemical process by which sea sponges create complex silicate structures. If he can figure out what it is they know he will provide us with a cheap and clean manufacturing process. In which case his statue deserves placement in every town in the world.

In Japan, the Sharp Corporation is working on a system of sunlight concentration, permitting far fewer solar cells to used to generate a given amount of electricity. The necessary secret is to come up with something that contractors can install and that will give extended service without numerous service calls. In the system developed by Sharp, Fresnel lens will be used to deliver the sun’s rays to a photovoltaic panel – seems the things are not particularly sensitive about how much solar energy they might be expected to convert. Both of these developments belong in the Very Good News segment of this column.

Climate Change
I’m working on an appreciation of what the loss of the ice caps on Greenland and Antarctica might entail. I can safely say at this point the possibility that might happen should be feared by anyone who thinks humanity might want to protect itself from near extinction. Meanwhile, The UN meeting in Nairobi had some unkind things to say about those who choose to disregard climate change. This comes hot on the heels of the British Stern Report, which makes pretty clear the British attitude toward the U.S. and China, who refuse to go along with the rest of the world in trying to get a handle on the situation. Those who have read the Stern Report say it is most interesting, all kinds of charts and illustrations projecting the economic effects of oncoming climate warming. What I know of it, not having read it yet, suggests that perhaps it does not consider the loss of the ice caps. In which case it won’t have covered the worst case.

My hometown newspaper carried an article in which one scientist held his nose, and said maybe we’re going to have to put up a wall of pollution between the surface and the sun, to ward off a horrible fate. I’ve recently fled from something like that and I certainly hope there’s another way.

Meanwhile a group has taken the EPA into the U.S. Supreme Court to explain why the agency is comfortably indolent about climate change instead of doing something about it.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 20th, 2006 at 11:46 am and is filed under Energy Future, Environment, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.