-----Original Message----- From: brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com [mailto:brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com] On Behalf Of Keith Henson Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2010 2:28 PM To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Subject: Energy projects was Underwater mortgages and the economy
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. I looked at the articles you provided, and I noted, without surprise, that they omitted a very key detail: laser efficiency. In typical everyday usage, lasers are not very efficient. Even in high tech uses, such as inertia fusion, particle beams are much more efficient: about 12% vs. about 1%, back when inertia fusion was big back in the '80s. These are the kind of omissions that are tell-tale to me. It's an absolutely critical piece of information, which isn't mentioned. I've seen it probably literally thousands of times in the writings of true believers. I use it as a measure of a serious engineering or science project. Real practical engineers are very excited when they talk about key technical challenges. True believers don't talk about them. So, tell me, how are the lasers going to get the power to energize the fuel, and what is the efficiency and weight of the lasers involved? Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
