MIT Develops New "Green" Solar Energy System

[1369]

The beginning of the end of oil dependence? (http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=209900956&cid=NL_eet)

[xrayzebra]

Nice thought. But I wished some of you could have watched a program on "The History" channel last night. Our dependency on oil is not just for fuel. I always knew we used it for many things, but, holy smokes, aspirin. Bet you didn't know that. It is a basic building bock for so many things. Like, I think it was 34 percent, of a tv set is made from oil products. Some of the greenies may not like what would happen to our world if oil disappeared from our life.

[PixelPusher]

Nice thought.
How wonderfully regressive of you.


But I wished some of you could have watched a program on "The History" channel last night. Our dependency on oil is not just for fuel. I always knew we used it for many things, but, holy smokes, aspirin. Bet you didn't know that. It is a basic building bock for so many things. Like, I think it was 34 percent, of a tv set is made from oil products. Some of the greenies may not like what would happen to our world if oil disappeared from our life.
I wish you knew petroleum products were recyclable. (as long as you don't burn them for fuel)

[Phenomanul]

Nice thought. But I wished some of you could have watched a program on "The History" channel last night. Our dependency on oil is not just for fuel. I always knew we used it for many things, but, holy smokes, aspirin. Bet you didn't know that. It is a basic building bock for so many things. Like, I think it was 34 percent, of a tv set is made from oil products. Some of the greenies may not like what would happen to our world if oil disappeared from our life.


Yeah most plastics, pharmaceuticals, and solvents (think household cleaners, paint thinners, sealants) come from petroleum products.

I could live with having refineries around just for the production of chemicals instead of fuels. Our dependence then on foreign oils would be no where near as staggering as it is now. Dollars would stay in the U.S. and our economy could rebound.

And then there's this:

http://www.blacklightpower.com/

I posted that link in another thread, but it is probably more relevant in this one.

[RandomGuy]

The beginning of the end of oil dependence? (http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=209900956&cid=NL_eet)

HOLY SHIT!

This technology, if it does what they say it does, has the potential to be truly revolutionary.

Cheap fuel cells is the holy grail of renewables like solar and wind. It offers a way of storing energy produced during production peaks like daylight and windy days, and using the stored power to produce electricity during night and calm days. It would completly eliminate one of the major drawbacks of such power generation.

In distributed power generation schemes, large buildings produce their own power, and store that power in large fuel cells for use later.

Imagine that a large office building that is vacant 2 days out of every seven.

You install solar and wind generators and use the weekends where you don't need a lot of power to charge up the fuel cells for use during the week.

It would also be feasible for cities to install large fuel cells for areas of residential dwellings with similar solar and wind generation, say every X number of houses feeds/draws from each large fuel cell.

Such a scheme would also help with electric cars. Your home charging station would charge during the day while you are at work, store the power in a fuel cell, and use that power to charge your car up when you get home.

This breakthrough is a potential game changer.