BioSolar super battery under development
$54 for a KWh? Smaller and lighter, too. CleanTechnica article
Forum Discussion
my wild tangent on "big oil"...
It is very hard to beat the energy density of hydrocarbon molecules. Big Oil and their methane kin (LP and CNG) will be around until we've completely run out. An expensive battery isn't going to hurt big oil, if it takes 2-3 days to charge enough for 30 miles of driving here in the great white North. (We have had 0 days of full sunshine this month)
I'm not sure Big Oil's influence is preventing growth of alternative energy (solar is not renewable, in-exhaustible yes, renewable, no.) BP makes a lot of solar panels, and GE while selling turbines to oil and gas industry, also builds windmills.
It's you and I who are to blame for Big Oil. I'm cheap and lazy, and hydrocarbons are inexpensive and easy, even back when they cost $5/gallon, the kW/h price is a lot lower than solar.
I could sacrifice, I could walk to work (only 2 miles), I could wear a sweater at home instead of having the heat at 65F. This would "hurt" big oil. But I'm lazy, and my neighbors are lazy (at least three of them live within a few miles of work, yet we all drive.) We drive to the big box grocery store that's only 1/4 mile away. Jeeze I'm lazy!
Until humans (Americans?) stop being lazy, Big Oil continues to win. Solar will never reach the energy density of oil, its against the laws of physics, visible light photons just aren't that powerful.
Now if every house in the neighborhood could share an underground thorium reactor power station, that heated and cooled our homes and let us charge our expensive batteries quickly and cheaply, that would be impressive. That would hurt big oil. Big oil isn't stopping the thorium reactor, the department of defense is; because a thorium reactor doesn't breed plutonium, you can't use the waste to build bombs and bullets, and we love our bombs and bullets!
It is very hard to beat the energy density of hydrocarbon molecules. Big Oil and their methane kin (LP and CNG) will be around until we've completely run out. An expensive battery isn't going to hurt big oil, if it takes 2-3 days to charge enough for 30 miles of driving here in the great white North. (We have had 0 days of full sunshine this month)
I'm not sure Big Oil's influence is preventing growth of alternative energy (solar is not renewable, in-exhaustible yes, renewable, no.) BP makes a lot of solar panels, and GE while selling turbines to oil and gas industry, also builds windmills.
It's you and I who are to blame for Big Oil. I'm cheap and lazy, and hydrocarbons are inexpensive and easy, even back when they cost $5/gallon, the kW/h price is a lot lower than solar.
I could sacrifice, I could walk to work (only 2 miles), I could wear a sweater at home instead of having the heat at 65F. This would "hurt" big oil. But I'm lazy, and my neighbors are lazy (at least three of them live within a few miles of work, yet we all drive.) We drive to the big box grocery store that's only 1/4 mile away. Jeeze I'm lazy!
Until humans (Americans?) stop being lazy, Big Oil continues to win. Solar will never reach the energy density of oil, its against the laws of physics, visible light photons just aren't that powerful.
Now if every house in the neighborhood could share an underground thorium reactor power station, that heated and cooled our homes and let us charge our expensive batteries quickly and cheaply, that would be impressive. That would hurt big oil. Big oil isn't stopping the thorium reactor, the department of defense is; because a thorium reactor doesn't breed plutonium, you can't use the waste to build bombs and bullets, and we love our bombs and bullets!
