Post 61 made on Tuesday January 2, 2018 at 19:17 |
Dean Roddey Senior Member |
Joined: Posts: | May 2004 1,009 |
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You could even imagine something like window blinds that are solar cells on the outside. If all the windows on one side or two sides of tall buildings in cities (the sides where the sun is shining and where therefore most folks have the blinds at least partially closed) were collector surfaces, that's space that otherwise is wasted that could be used to generate energy. That's a lot of surface area and up off the ground where it will be hit early and late in the day, when ground (or roof) based collectors aren't going to be doing much or anything.
Also, though you couldn't drive a car on solar, if it's a hybrid or electric, there's nothing wrong with the top of the car being all collector surface, obviously under some sort of hard shell protective layer. It can only help by topping up the battery a bit as you are out.
How about killing two birds with one stone... We have local 'power gyms' where you can come burn some calories and be paid for the number of watts you generated, because there's a small flywheel based generator in every treadmill or stair stepper and so forth.
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Dean Roddey Chairman/CTO, Charmed Quark Systems www.charmedquark.com |
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