PV Gap

Nora Said:

The subject of Solar Power came up on YASA a while back?

We Answered:

Carbon nanotubes offer promise, someday. Regular researchers are working on this, too, but the efficiencies they're getting now, as far as I know, are only around 3%.

I doubt the article has its facts straight. The promise is to harvest 500 times more energy. A commercial silicon panel will already get about 15% of the energy from the light, making it impossible to get more than 7 times as much energy Some panels made today get even more. Perhaps they were comparing the proposed technology to something else?

Lynn Said:

Do bird baths with solar heaters really exist?

We Answered:

moving water freezes much slower than still water. so a solar fountain type that cascades the water will not freeze as quickly as one without a fountain.

the sun itself is a solar heater, isn't it.......the obvios problem is providing heat after dark. the only way for a solar heater to work after the sun goes down is to have some way to store power, so my guess is a solar heated birdbath doesn't really exist, and if it does it would cost you a pretty penny

Hector Said:

if getting solar power in space is so easy, why can't we get it in space and then send it to earth?

We Answered:

ACTUALLY i think NASA has figured out a way to beam down the electricity using microwaves

or radio waves maybe

but the collectors are HUGE like .5 miles across

Joshua Said:

What is concentrating solar power?

We Answered:

Concentrating solar power is a means of gathering solar energy different from the use of photovoltaic panels that are installed everywhere from our rooftops down to our calculators. Instead of directly converting solar energy to electricity, concentrated solar power or solar thermal technology concentrates sunlight onto a relatively small point, which heats a medium.

The heat from the medium is then either transferred directly to a material to be heated, such as a liquid like water, to produce steam that can turn a steam engine or connected to a special generator called a heat engine to produce electric power. Unlike commercial solar panels, solar thermal can covert up to 60 percent of the sun's rays into electricity - compared with conventional solar panels with around 19 percent at most.