From: wolfone@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Patrick Chester)
Newsgroups: talk.environment
Subject: Re: Solar Powered Roof
Keywords: solar power
Date: 6 Oct 92 08:25:30 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX

In article <1992Sep30.170728.28862@csi.jpl.nasa.gov> mark@csi.jpl.nasa.gov (Mark Webster) writes:
)
)It seems as though eventually, solar power will become a more viable source
)of energy.  Solar cells are becoming more efficient and cheaper, and hopefully,
)the ecological impact of manufacturing them will be reduced or eliminated.  
)Other forms of solar energy conversion are also making strides toward
)viability.  One problem that I can see is lack of space.  I'm a desert lover and
)I really don't want to see a lot of desert torn up to erect solar power plant
)farms.  Floating them on the ocean makes them vulnerable to storms and may have
)some sort of impact on ocean life.  And solar satellites are vulnerable to 
)space debris, atomic oxygen, atmospheric and solar drag.  The method of transferring energy from orbit is also somewhat problematic.
SPS stations were planned to be placed at geosynchronous orbit. How much atomic
oxygen is up that high? As to space junk, a little armor can help against that.
The problem w/the power transmission (main idea was w/microwaves) was the
hysteria whipped up by some people. They were claiming you could cook a city
with it if the beam were knocked off course or if terrorists got the controls
to the aiming computers. I doubt the *focused* beam would boil water with the
energy per square centimeter it transmits. 10 gigawatts is a lot of power, but
if it's spread over a 10km diameter beam how much would that do? 
Anybody w/calcuator and a physics textbook want to calculate that? I have a
calculator but no equation.
)
)So, I have and idea.  How about we cover the roof of every building, commercial, public and hell, even residential with solar cells.  If you fly over LA, black roofs as far as the eye can see.  Even erect them over freeways on light weight frames that can't hurt anything if they fall during an earthquake (only a problem in California and the area around New Madrid Missouri).  
)
)Whattaya think? Flame away. Just post please.
Too late. It's already been featured in a science fiction novel. A future 
Pheonix Arizona had the entire city effectively covered by solar panel arrays.
It was nicknamed "Frozen Shade" and left the entire city below it in permanent
night. Author might have been trying to say something when it says that the 
city was covered because some ecologists, none of which lived in the city, 
forced that system on them because they wouldn't let nuclear power be used and
wouldn't let the power company put it all in the desert. Oh well.
)
)Mark
)
)On an intimate quest for knowledge.
Read some hard science fiction. Not a flame. A serious, hard felt recomendation.


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Patrick Chester            |"The earth is too fragile a basket in which to keep
wolfone@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu |  all your eggs." Robert A. Heinlein
Politically Incorrect      |"The meek shall inherit the earth. The rest of us
Future Lunar Colonist      |  are going to the stars." Anonymous
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