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Bread
may be inefficient
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But who can resist the aroma, crunch and flavor of a freshly baked loaf?
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You are looking at captured sunshine
And if you're anything like me your mouth is watering right about now... It's not how much you capture,
but how you harness what you get.
The technologies for harnessing solar energy directly are derivative and based on how the sunlight is
captured; thermal-capture and photovoltaic. PV is a quantum process relying on pure or exotic materials
and captures up to 20% of the sunshine into a directly usable form. The other 80% is lost as unusable
heat.
Solar-Thermal is what happens when sunlight is absorbed by an any normal object, it is a physical process,
and can capture almost 100% of the sunshine as heat. That heat can then be converted to a more useful form
(electricity) with efficiencies from 15-40%. Of the remaining heat, as much as 30% is still usable for
other purposes.
Summary
Agriculture is inefficient at capturing solar energy, plants capture only a tiny fraction of a percent, but
do it very inexpensively.
PV might bring 10-15% of the energy to market, but the capital cost is staggering.
Solar-Thermal, utilizing Organic Rankine Cycle technology, currently brings 20-30% of the energy in sunlight
to market, at a capital cost approximately 1/3rd of PV.
Solar & Thermal Systems, Inc. has the technology to deliver energy to market at a fantastic price, less
than $100 per megawatt hour.
That's the concept. That's the sales pitch. That's the secret. How much less? Keep reading.
The energy in sunlight is enough to provide all the energy that human civilization needs, today, tomorrow,
and for the foreseeable future.
Those are the two things we're asking you to believe. If you feel that there is a glimmer of truth to
those statements, then please give us the opportunity to prove it to you. If you are able and willing to
acknowledge facts, then please read on. If the idea of saving and/or making money appeals to you, then please
read on.
Before you click away, we have a few requests. Please don't:
- Believe that "Government and Big-Oil" are conspiring to keep alternative energy out of the
public eye. It's Economics, the "dismal science", the "invisible hand".
- Conclude that just because government, university, and big-business, haven't found a way to make these
things inexpensively, that it can't be done. We can do it.
- Assume that we're baffling you with hype. This is not a 100+ MPG carburetor, perpetual motion, nor quantum
fluctuations. It's a closed vessel in the sun.
- Infer that sunlight is an insignificant source of energy, it's too spread out, it's not reliable, and it
only works during the day*. (OK, it only runs during the day.)
If any of these points resonate more strongly in your mind than your ability to learn, or you have made up
your mind already, please leave the site now. It's our
goal to educate and inform, but that requires willingness.
Great! We're glad you decided to stay. Are you ready for a little science?
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