Energy projects was Underwater mortgages and the economy

On Tue, Nov 2, 2010 at 11:00 AM,  "Dan Minette" <[email protected]> wrote:

snip

> This is not a "black swan" type of new technology that comes out of nowhere,
> where costs come down a factor of two every year or two, etc.  Its old
> technology, long promised as just around the corner.  It will be very good
> at providing electricity in small amounts at high prices.  IMHO, the long
> history of these two ventures put this as a cross between the cost
> effectiveness of solar power and the space shuttle.

Dan, I don't mind criticisms based on understanding the engineering
and/or economics, but this kind of blanket dismissal I don't think is
justified.

The power satellite variation I have been talking about is based on a
200 to one reduction in the cost of lifting parts to GEO and *that* is
based on high power solid state lasers which have only been on the
market for a few years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_diodes#Applications_of_laser_diodes

Do you have an idea of what raising the exhaust velocity to 9-10
km/sec will do for payload?

The StratoSolar idea is just over a year old and has only been out
from under NDA for a month.

There are *many* engineering problems still to be solved.  Still, it
looks like for fundamental reasons the method will cut the cost of
materials by close to a factor of 25 over current concentrated solar
power systems.  Since the capital cost of materials is the main cost
driver for renewable sources of energy, a 25 to one reduction in
materials cost should cause a substantial reduction in energy cost.

If these methods cannot be projected to supply huge amounts of energy
at very low prices, they are not worth doing at all.

Keith