Alternative Energy: Viable?

ScottyJack wrote

coach cracks me up.    and then Im all

And you drive a tiny electric car Scotty?

Coach Z wrote

Sounds like a great idea for passive heating but you could not turn it off in the summer.

I don't think you know how this works. In the summer you solidify at night and cool as the wax melts during the day, in the winter you melt during the day and solidify at night. The key is getting a material with a melting point in the mid 70s with a high degree of energy storage capacity.

I get that but in reality it works much better for heating than cooling unless you live in a Goldilocks climate

Coach Z wrote

I get that but in reality it works much better for heating than cooling unless you live in a Goldilocks climate

It actually works equally as well in both directions.

Has this been commercialized on?

Coach Z wrote

Has this been commercialized on?

Not that I am aware of. I worked on a DOE research grant proposal back in the first energy crisis. Commercialization due to cost was going to be an issue and I still expect it is. It appeared to me as a good addition to passive solar.

https://www.designnews.com/automotive-0/will-loss-tax-credits-crash-ev-market/43012521856748?cid=nl.x.dn14.edt.aud.dn.20170510.tst004t

Batteries are still the technology that is blocking both the acceptance the economic viability of EV's

Musk has his own plant and possible some advantages in both technology and costs for Tesla but the others are struggling especially at the lower price points as this article points out.

It's only going to improve.

Lots of money to whatever company comes up with a cheap, effective solution.

Once it gets to that point, how do we keep those manufacturing jobs here in the U.S.?? At this point is that even possible? I can't see how it would be.

campgottagopee wrote

Once it gets to that point, how do we keep those manufacturing jobs here in the U.S.?? At this point is that even possible? I can't see how it would be.

You're assuming there are lots of manufacturing jobs. Robots will probably be responsible for most of the production.

mattchuck2 wrote

It's only going to improve.

Lots of money to whatever company comes up with a cheap, effective solution.

I agree it's improving but batteries are the issue that has been holding back so many other technologie for over a decade now.  Making them is very resource and energy intensive.  Batteries are very non green and as they push the power densities up in ever smaller packages they are bomb like devices that are less safe than a tank of gas.

Coach Z wrote

as they push the power densities up in ever smaller packages they are bomb like devices that are less safe than a tank of gas.

This seems false. Why say it? Why the fear mongering?

Guys you like Matt think EV's are nothing but Sunshine and puppy dogs

the reality is that making the battery is a very unclean ungreen industry that requires a crap ton of energy

Cell phones have shown the danger of Li batteries and now you want to pack 100000 more times the energy and barely package it to save weight and then expose it to a crash at highway speeds and you have a bomb

Then you have to recharge it using energy that is mostly not green

and the only way you can sell it is either to make it so expensive on the super rich can buy it as a toy or the tax payers have to subsidize the crap out of it to make it profitable and affordable

Real winner of an idea you have there which is really only around because liberals are forcing the car companies to offer it or face penalties.

Coach Z wrote

Real winner of an idea you have there which is really only around because liberals are forcing the car companies to offer it or face penalties.

Exactly. Trump should make em go back to using steam for christ sake.

Spending a fortune in the 60's to get 47.5 lbs. of rocks from the moon did not seem to make a lot of sense to some people but it made us the technology leader of the world for decades and paid itself back many, many times over.
Sometimes you have look past immediate payback in investment. And not all investments payback. But if the U.S. doesn't invest in emerging technologies, other countries will and they will reap the benefits of those that do payback.
Solar and wind energy prices have come down and will continue to. Just like that video camera I bought 29 years ago was big and expensive, video cameras now are the size of a GoPro and much cheaper. New methods of energy storage are being researched and developed and better solutions will be found. But the U.S. will only benefit economically if we invest in the R&D of new technologies and not in coal.

trackbiker wrote

Spending a fortune in the 60's to get 47.5 lbs. of rocks from the moon did not seem to make a lot of sense to some people but it made us the technology leader of the world for decades and paid itself back many, many times over.
Sometimes you have look past immediate payback in investment. And not all investments payback. But if the U.S. doesn't invest in emerging technologies, other countries will and they will reap the benefits of those that do payback.
Solar and wind energy prices have come down and will continue to. Just like that video camera I bought 29 years ago was big and expensive, video cameras now are the size of a GoPro and much cheaper. New methods of energy storage are being researched and developed and better solutions will be found. But the U.S. will only benefit economically if we invest in the R&D of new technologies and not in coal.

I agree 110% that R&D is the key to this and the US would benefit down the road   I'd support the govt bank rolling more research and R&D tax credits for companies but subsidies of the current crappy battery tech draped in false green labels is a huge waste of tax payer money.  In fact having to produce cars today with the existing subpar technology is likely hindering true breakthrough in the technology in the future as all the money is going to the short term production problems.

I strongly believe in the superiority of the American engineer.

You are a damn good shit Coach. Jus sayin.

"If I were king" I would have an X-prize type of competition.  A billion dollars for the first group (company, university, whatever) to come up with a solar capturing technology (photovoltaic) that can be commercialized and exceeds <insert threshold here>.

I would have a second X-prize of a billion dollars for the first group who could retain that electricity <insert threshold here>  and have it be commercialized.

The terms would be that all the development for the products would have to take place in-country and that the government would retain a royalty, in perpetuity, for all units sold.  Say 5%.

Thomas Friedman is right when he said that it wasn't a space race, but a science race.  I'm a big fan of his.

I agree with this idea and have suggested it in the past. Give it prestige with an awards ceremonial on national TV to get the universities jazzed about it.

The US has a disproportionate amount of the world's universities, we should leverage it.