On Tue, Nov 2, 2010 at 11:00 AM, "Dan Minette" <danmine...@att.net> wrote:
snip > This is not a "black swan" type of new technology that comes out of nowhere, > where costs come down a factor of two every year or two, etc. Its old > technology, long promised as just around the corner. It will be very good > at providing electricity in small amounts at high prices. IMHO, the long > history of these two ventures put this as a cross between the cost > effectiveness of solar power and the space shuttle. Dan, I don't mind criticisms based on understanding the engineering and/or economics, but this kind of blanket dismissal I don't think is justified. The power satellite variation I have been talking about is based on a 200 to one reduction in the cost of lifting parts to GEO and *that* is based on high power solid state lasers which have only been on the market for a few years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_diodes#Applications_of_laser_diodes Do you have an idea of what raising the exhaust velocity to 9-10 km/sec will do for payload? The StratoSolar idea is just over a year old and has only been out from under NDA for a month. There are *many* engineering problems still to be solved. Still, it looks like for fundamental reasons the method will cut the cost of materials by close to a factor of 25 over current concentrated solar power systems. Since the capital cost of materials is the main cost driver for renewable sources of energy, a 25 to one reduction in materials cost should cause a substantial reduction in energy cost. If these methods cannot be projected to supply huge amounts of energy at very low prices, they are not worth doing at all. Keith _______________________________________________ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
