[geeks] [rescue] Computerfests (was: first real server hardware) -OT

[Brian Dunbar]

On Apr 28, 2004, at 8:39 AM, wa2egp at att.net wrote:

>> You could, but solar is tough to manage in real time.  You'd need some
>> sort of intermediate storage.  Hydrogen fuel cell maybe?  You could
>> use an array of mirrored parabolic dishes to focus sunlight onto
>> a boiler or something... but again it would only work when the sun is
>> shining and if it clouded up your boiler would cool off and you'd
>> have to heat it up all over again.
>
> If that means you can't get when you want it, then store what you get.
> If you get enough plants, you'll always have "excess".

I saw a proposal to use microwaves or lasers to beam power from solar 
powered satellites to heat a boiler which would then generate 
electricity.  I'm not sure if this would be 'better' or 'worse' than 
simply beaming the same power to a rectenna or solar array for 
collection.

~brian