[Roflmao]

Originally Posted by DGthe3

The premise for microwave power is basically a laser beam of microwave energy, as opposed to visible light. And while it might fry a few birds, every power plant that we make has some sort of detrimental effect on those poor creatures. Hydroelectric floods their homes, they get zapped by transmisison lines, someone has probably found that birds that nest at nuclear plants are mutated or sterile or something, wind turbines chop them up, they get cooked by solar thermal plants, and it just goes on.

As for the efficiency of solar panels in space, they work extremely well up there. For one thing they can be oriented towards the sun all day long making maximum use of the power. No light is difused in the atmosphere. Its said that they can collect up to 10x more power every day than a similar area of solar panels on earth.

As for the fusion reactors, yes they do use electromagnetic levitation to suspend the plasma. But that can only do so much. A fusion reactor would not generate nearly as much heat as the sun, but it would be generating the same temperatures (think of heat as flow rate from a hose, temperature as the pressure). So it would need to be on the order of millions of degrees. Unless you can levitate that plasma several miles away, its going to need something more than levitation. Thats where cold fusion comes in, but that's something that I know practically nothing about.

Oh, and I recomend going to school for this stuff -unless you are at a point in life where that is not practical. School is only 8 months at a time, and the time put in will pay off eventually. And if you don't want to go into nuclear phyiscs, thats fine. Take something like energy engineering. Little less exotic, but you would be designing things to get rid of nasty, disgusting coal power (clean coal is a concept up there with civil war, friendly fire and microsoft works, the two words should never be used together). There are other routes to go as well but you get the idea.

hmm, I seem to have been rambling.

Yeah I agree with just about everything you said haha. I am just a tad concerned about the microwaves shooting lasers down into a plant to be distributed to the power grid. Is the technology to make it efficient available? I know the solar panels in the sky can soak up energy, but can it be transfered to earth without wasting it? I wouldn't know how a solar panel would be able to keep in position to beam the lasers down constantly either, but thats why I'm not into aeronautics.

With the fusion stuff, yeah its not the easiest thing to figure out how to contain the plasma, but thats why I was proposing more funding for it. I could be wrong but I remember that the idea of a magnetic field could somehow be manipulated to deflect the heat as well as the plasma in order to contain it all, in theory. It is 50 years away, but why not put more money towards it and make it 30 years away? JMO.

As far as the whole school thing, I should have been a bit more specific haha. I love physics and chemistry and all that good stuff, but to go get a PhD in it, I'm not sure I could do. Reasons for that is I wouldn't be out of school until I was in my 30s, and at that point, I'm not even sure if I could do that stuff on a daily basis. I like the science of it, but only for fun, if it was my job I'm not sure I could do it.

Oh and dragon, those are fission reactors, they produce the nuclear waste. Thats why I want fusion. Fusion=more power than fission without any waste as well.

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by Roflmao

Yeah I agree with just about everything you said haha. I am just a tad concerned about the microwaves shooting lasers down into a plant to be distributed to the power grid. Is the technology to make it efficient available? I know the solar panels in the sky can soak up energy, but can it be transfered to earth without wasting it? I wouldn't know how a solar panel would be able to keep in position to beam the lasers down constantly either, but thats why I'm not into aeronautics.

With the fusion stuff, yeah its not the easiest thing to figure out how to contain the plasma, but thats why I was proposing more funding for it. I could be wrong but I remember that the idea of a magnetic field could somehow be manipulated to deflect the heat as well as the plasma in order to contain it all, in theory. It is 50 years away, but why not put more money towards it and make it 30 years away? JMO.

As far as the whole school thing, I should have been a bit more specific haha. I love physics and chemistry and all that good stuff, but to go get a PhD in it, I'm not sure I could do. Reasons for that is I wouldn't be out of school until I was in my 30s, and at that point, I'm not even sure if I could do that stuff on a daily basis. I like the science of it, but only for fun, if it was my job I'm not sure I could do it.

Oh and dragon, those are fission reactors, they produce the nuclear waste. Thats why I want fusion. Fusion=more power than fission without any waste as well.

Well, I'm not too sure about the science of microwave power, but I know enough of the pieces to give it a shot. Getting a satalite to stay in place over a single spot is easy. Its called geosynchronous orbit and communication and GPS satellites rely on this. Lasers are extremely efficient at sending energy from one point to another so an extremely high percentage of energy sent will be recieved, approaching 100%. Microwaves also have the interesting property of heating water extremely well, look at a microwave oven. And heating water is the main way to produce power. Thats how nuclear, coal, oil, biomass, natural gas, and some types of solar and geothermal work. So all of the basic concepts seem to be valid with few obvious draw backs.

And using electro-magnetism to deflect radiated heat? Hmm, I guess it could work. Radiated heat is electromagnetic waves (infrared light). So it should be possible to influence them with EM.

[Nickdago]

Originally Posted by Blizzard

Everyone,

We need to start calling our elected officals in D.C. and telling them what we want, from expanding our Nuclear plants to making ethonal from sugar cane instead of corn. Rememberthey work for us not some lobbyist. It doesnt matter what age you are, for those of you who cant vote your voice can still be heard and will be. We the People are to be in control of this Country, so lets take control.

I Agree Totally

[Nickdago]

Originally Posted by Dragoneye

...You mind laying off the use of "Liberal" and the "democrats are evil" comments, please? It's not very accurate, or kind.


fwiw, though, I don't think we'll see many E100 vehicles around here, because I've heard/read that it's difficult to start them here in the colder climates. But getting any sort of Ethanol infrastructure up and running would be nice. I have yet to see a single E85 pump around here. But I passed 2 going down the western border of Pennsylvania.

(Oh, and McCain IS saying we should expand nuclear power. He wants to construct 100 new plants...45 of them by 2030)

I must have missed the Democrates are evil comment.

[Roflmao]

Originally Posted by DGthe3

Well, I'm not too sure about the science of microwave power, but I know enough of the pieces to give it a shot. Getting a satalite to stay in place over a single spot is easy. Its called geosynchronous orbit and communication and GPS satellites rely on this. Lasers are extremely efficient at sending energy from one point to another so an extremely high percentage of energy sent will be recieved, approaching 100%. Microwaves also have the interesting property of heating water extremely well, look at a microwave oven. And heating water is the main way to produce power. Thats how nuclear, coal, oil, biomass, natural gas, and some types of solar and geothermal work. So all of the basic concepts seem to be valid with few obvious draw backs.

And using electro-magnetism to deflect radiated heat? Hmm, I guess it could work. Radiated heat is electromagnetic waves (infrared light). So it should be possible to influence them with EM.

Sweet! Okay here is what we do then. Build the microwave plants now, and then when fusion comes on line, use the microwave plants to power the hypothetical magnets that are going to be needed to produce all the mangetic crap to contain the reaction. Using indirect fusion power to create fusion power... ahh scientific irony *sigh*.

[boxmonkeyracing]

I know what will solve all our energy problems and differences.



Global Thermal Nuclear War. . .

if anyone is alive after that then they will be too concerned with finding food and living to worry about money and everything else.

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by Roflmao

Sweet! Okay here is what we do then. Build the microwave plants now, and then when fusion comes on line, use the microwave plants to power the hypothetical magnets that are going to be needed to produce all the mangetic crap to contain the reaction. Using indirect fusion power to create fusion power... ahh scientific irony *sigh*.

When it comes down to it, all power sources are based on fusion. Coal, wind, hydroelectric. Too tired to write a full post tonight. Maybe tomorrow.