The MIT Energy Initiative: Sustainable Energy and Terawatt-Scale Photovoltaics

[aloisgault]

25:00 on you finally get some real info. this is a good overview/primer of PV tech. I am glad to see someone is addressing the rare earths issue.

[Zhudewang]

MIT gets its funding mainly from the Defense Department. I wonder where will these so-called "Free Energy initiative" end up. Will it bring about genuine change in the world or will these alternative end up being controlled by powerful people as a means to enslave the billions of poor people?

[bmecher]

8+ wasted minutes on bureaucratic minutae. I do not want to see agenda or hear about president- get on with your concept! I do not need to hear about your programs- talk about your tech! 15 minutes wated I am gone, Terrawat photovoltaics? no bureaucratese.

[valtih1978]

"Building more cars" is a part of capitalism-consumerism planet killing. Urban community must leave their encouraged selfish individualist values: private housing with stupid loan cutting and automobilization lifestyle. A systematic resource sharing (e.g. compact block houses and public communication/transport) is the only solution to support multibillion population.

[brokendash240]

so,its no problem if the food you eat in your large block house is farmed by a company that knows the labor is cheaper in the 3rd world then where ever you live, and that they wouldnt have to follow the pollution laws where you live because the 3rd world doesnt have any yet, which allows the company to make more profit off the food you eat in your block house?

[valtih1978]

I do not understand your message. I'm telling that capitalists build inefficient urban infrastructure over the whole world. I live in former USSR and can compare between socialist and capitalist household. The extensive pollution laws in the 1st world do not stop the individual house grass-cutting lifestile. May be you do not know but this planet killing consumerist lifestyle should be very profitable -- the more you consume the better for companies.

[brokendash240]

I agree with you 100%, :-) Two things... the "consumer" has been designed without their knowledge. Check out this guy Edward Louis Bernays an see what horrible gift he gave to the world. Now check this out about the USA and how we used to regulate bussiness's previously in history. more specificlly read the part about "Charter Revocation"... :-) Also if you dont know what a "Futurist" is you should check it out. :-)

[kessass83]

@valtih1978 oh yes there is no doubt. simple example, there is very simple ingredient into asfalt to pave the roads. today we have that every 5 years you need to repave the road. it is possible to have asfalt capable to be without damage over 50 years.

[valtih1978]

@kessass83 Much more importantly is that we need to live in individual houses. If we would build our cities of 10-floor block of flats, we could have schools, shops and everything at arm's length and save immense resources traveling short distances to work by public transport. However, sharing resources, through saves resources to the extent that allows to live 7 bln decently, makes us less self-reliable and limits our freedom. Private ownership and freedom worth killing the planet.

[lennyhome]

Photovoltaics is a joke. People consider it only because politics dumps huge amounts of cash into it. It sounds good, it's horrendously expensive and has no practical value.

[tulio84z]

Its expensive because no one uses it . Dumb fuck!

[lennyhome]

"It's" not "its". Learn to spell you dumb fuck. Photovoltaics and wind power become even more expensive when you make large use of them because the best locations are already taken.

[1imax111]

Lol, almost all energy we have on earth comes from the sun.

Please explain how harnessing the biggest energy source is a joke.

Unless the above statement was a joke then ignore this comment

[lennyhome]

You have to take into account that it accumulated for millions of years in plants, animals, and ultimately into oil and we've consumed a good portion of it a century. With photovoltaics you can get at most what is coming day by day, which is a lot less than you need to maintain your lifestyle. But you might say: "I need a lot less", well then enjoy your new photovoltaics based dark ages. I'm not buying into it and I ultimately think is a huge corporate wall street like scam.

[1imax111]

ok, I'm not saying I agree with you, but how do you think we should power the world?

[lennyhome]

I don't know and I never claimed otherwise but fusion is pretty interesting. The numbers are right, in principle there is proof that it works and the technology behind it is progressing steadily.

[PAStheLoD]

Carbon-nanowires could also used as photon collectors. They've a very high chance to be mass produced and to be very cheap.

Also, EM energy that's coming from the Sun is so enermous, that nothing Earth based (wind, water) can outpace it on the long term. (Except fusion.)

[lennyhome]

Carbon nanotubes/nanowires/whatever are not cheap to produce because they are very prone to defects and suspect asbestos-like carcinogens. That is, because of their shape they can puncture the lungs and lodge themselves permanently in the tissue.

[danben72]

This is what I heard recently as well.

It was related to building an elevator into space to harness Helium from the moon.

[PAStheLoD]

Yes, probably. However, every PV material needs to be sealed tight from the environment, so the health problems shouldn't be such a big issue.

The defect rate on the other hand should decrease as nanoengineering advances.

[lennyhome]

Einstein discovered the photoelectric effect in the '40 and carbon nanotubes have been discovered in '52. Just think at how little they were able to accomplish in more than 50 years of research in this area from the point of view of energy production. And this is not the first energy crisis we go thru. There are tons of stuff that would work if only high purity, defect free, huge nanostructures (crystals, tubes, what have you) were cheap and would require little energy to make.

[amopian]

um the electric car was available on the market around 80-100 years ago and now the fossil fuel car dominates, all this photovoltaic technology needs is some prescence on the market

[lennyhome]

The fossil fuel car dominates because electric cars are horrendously expensive and polluting too. Just think about recycling batteries and all the coal you have to burn to generate electricity to charge said batteries. And no, you can't charge the battery of an electric car with photovoltaics unless you're ready to wait a month per charge or spend $200.000 for enough panels to charge it in a day. And you have to burn a lot of coal to make solar panels too. And to recycle them when they fail.

[amopian]

Other green sources of electricity also contribute to the electrical energy grid, electric cars are more efficient even without a whole industry powering to increase its effiency. Fossil fuel cars dominates because fossil fuel cars was in a position within the market to overtake the electric car. Expenses are only of the initial, if there was an industry as large and as promoted as fossil fuel cars the ratios of the pros of the electric car youll find increases from a well established list

[lennyhome]

How are electric cars more efficient? They aren't, in fact they cost a lot more to make and to operate. How expenses are only initial? Does that means that you don't have to change tires on electric cars and that solar panels are eternal? Solar panels degrade over time and batteries degrade over time. Think about how much does it costs to replace your cell phone battery... and multiply it by 1000.

[amopian]

i dont want to waste any more of my time go invest some of your time in informing yourself, go watch some debates, documentaries(who killed the electric car, an inconvenient truth etc.), etc.

[lennyhome]

I've watched who killed the electric car and I like conspiracy theories, whatever has been on Coast to Coast, Riley Martin, Alex Jones and what have you and things of that nature. I just don't like to mix conspiracy theories and science.

[PAStheLoD]

Hm. Let's have another look at this. I don't hae a problem with dead dinosaurs helping me to get my speeding ticket. I just live next to two of the busiest streets in my city, and it's no fun. The same goes for my hometown, with its steel mill, cokeing plant, etc.. air pollution is bad.

If we were using highly efficient filters, I wouldn't care about fossils.

However, they're clearly depleting and we need other options. Solar is one worth pursuing. Fusion is an other. Both need breakthroughs.

[SteveSparx]

politics hurt solar energy solution