http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/11/12/solar.coating/index.html

This holds much promise!!

Might make it efficient to use even in northern climates where traditionally solar power is merely an urban legend! Taking efficiency of existing solar cells from 66% to almost 93% is nothing to sneeze at. What else will they accomplish in the near future with the budding tech of nanotechnology?

I think it's excellent. Ironically it was a college that researched and came up with this.

I know it's hard for people to understand but percentage of available sunlight absorbed was not the primary limiting factor for solar power. And it's not ironic that a university researched it, the current subsidies here are for implementation, thus companies with major research budgets don't care to go after even the "easy" stuff.

Let's play buzz word bingo here --

Solar, check. Nano, check! Naming portions of the light spectrum, check!

Oh, and here's the industry guy going on about how universities just aren't quite cool enough.

Yeah, it's a cute, but god I hate science reporting.

And it's not ironic that a university researched it,


LOL, it sure is if you've been following any of the free market discussions here that claim business and only business is the answer.

Yeah but anyone who reads books and not magazines has known that was bullshit for decades :>

I've haven't said free business is the only answer. I , unlike some, am real hesitant about the govt getting involved. If you knew anything about govt contracting and the waste involved in anything ran by the govt you'd be hesitant as well.

Loss of absorbed potential power was always noted as a potential gain in anything I've read before. We need to be more open minded in moving towards small gains and the work involved in getting there instead of bowing constantly to old habits.

If you knew anything about govt contracting and the waste involved in anything ran by the govt you'd be hesitant as well.

I know a lot about government/public contracting as I have spent many years working on them. I also know a lot about private contracting and working at private companies as I have spent a number of years in private.

My conclusion:

Private companies are only a smiddgen more efficient than their government counterparts. In some private companies the difference between private and public sector in terms of efficiency is about 50/50.

The main disadvantage with private industry is if they are not regulated properly their greed will take over best practices to haul in as much profit as possible with no regards to future repercussions. "We will deal with the lawsuits later, right now let’s fleece the customers".

Government should be putting in "proper" regulations on industry whenever possible. The government should be regulating any and all businesses though introduction of law, they are poor producers of products and services themselves and should rely on the private sector(s) in which they regulate to produce said products and services.

It's a catch 22, you can't have one without the other or the result is financial crisis s#*T hitting the fan fun times.

The main disadvantages with the government are many, including:
- The incapability of a federal employee to be out right fired for incompetence. Up here in Canada all federal employees hide behind their unions. The only time I have EVER seen a federal employee out and out fired was when they blatantly broke the law and got caught in the paper trail.
- Hardly anyone in the government takes "ownership" of the products and services they are assigned to. I have a saying, "it takes 1000 meetings to decide on one issue in the government". It may not be 1000 but it sure seems like that sometimes. This is the bureaucracy effect in full swing.

Sorry for the derailment.

Solar panels are cool especially when the efficiency gets closer and closer to 100%.


Cheers,

LOL...yeah the Iraq war really showed privatization at its most efficient. Many $56.00 meals served to troops? Of course those inexpensive truck drivers really made things cost effective and efficient and oh...while we were making the military more efficient we ended up having to use the guys to ride shotgun on those privatized supply convoys.

And let us not forget the bang up job KBR has done in the post Katrina New Orleans and Mississippi and Blackwater, now there is a well run crime syndicate, where else could we get a private army at a cost of around 300k a year per soldier.

And healthcare, thank god we went with the other plan of letting it be corporate based and not the one that serves the military, congress and the senate because just like they told us competition would control pricing and give us choice.

Yeah letting the government run even the most basic services just sucked for the previous 200 years thank God this privatization shit was discovered it's so fucking great!

LOL...yeah the Iraq war really showed privatization at its most efficient. Many $56.00 meals served to troops? Of course those inexpensive truck drivers really made things cost effective and efficient and oh...while we were making the military more efficient we ended up having to use the guys to ride shotgun on those privatized supply convoys.

And let us not forget the bang up job KBR has done in the post Katrina New Orleans and Mississippi and Blackwater, now there is a well run crime syndicate, where else could we get a private army at a cost of around 300k a year per soldier.

And healthcare, thank god we went with the other plan of letting it be corporate based and not the one that serves the military, congress and the senate because just like they told us competition would control pricing and give us choice.

Yeah letting the government run even the most basic services just sucked for the previous 200 years thank God this privatization shit was discovered it's so fucking great!

Sad thing is you are acting as though it's all black and white. OMG SUM EBIL R DO US TEH WRONG SO ALL R TEH EBIL.

You can't get scared and run 180 deg the other way. Spend all your time here cursing the govt/admin and now think they'll do us right when it comes to business.

Oh and before you say...but but but was all the ebil Bush and co remember most of the powers that be in Washington aren't voted in. They are life long red tape heads of departments.

The Govt can't take care of everything, we are not a nation of children and victims.

Btw how is it you are still yelling and railing when you finally got someone in power you wanted. Isn't it time to pull that lemon out and maybe squeeze some fresh lemonade? Shesshh This is about Solar power not govt running all aspects of our lives...

I've haven't said free business is the only answer. I , unlike some, am real hesitant about the govt getting involved. If you knew anything about govt contracting and the waste involved in anything ran by the govt you'd be hesitant as well.




The thing is, government grants to colleges for research are what has kept us competitive, since the research is seldom profit oriented, as it usually is with the big companies. A college research program will look for how to cure an illness whereas the pharmaceutical company will look for how to maximize profit through medicine. Same goes for energy research, I am sure.

Many $56.00 meals served to troops? Of course those inexpensive truck drivers really made things cost effective and efficient and oh...while we were making the military more efficient we ended up having to use the guys to ride shotgun on those privatized supply convoys.

Ya keep using that number 56...gonna have to ask you to back it up with a link. All I can say is, the KBR meals and housing there were nothing short of awesome, which is a welcome change from the service troops normally see.

I've said my piece on gov't contracting. but here it is again. You get three types:

1)fantastic overpriced service
2)crappy low bid service
3)Non-existant service because the job changed post bid.

Pick yer poison.

Now, on topic...All this does is make existing photovoltaic more efficient, an increase in productivity (66 to 90sih) of about 50 percent.

For solar to work, the underlying photovotaics needs to come down in price by an order of magnitude.

Like with THIS TECHNOLOGY that is now 3 years old:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/01/0114_050114_solarplastic.html

I don't know where you were eating. But at my FOB I spent the last 6 months living off what the PX had and fast food because every time I ate at the Dining Facility I wanted to hurl (and did quite often) shortly after.

Ya keep using that number 56...gonna have to ask you to back it up with a link. All I can say is, the KBR meals and housing there were nothing short of awesome, which is a welcome change from the service troops normally see.




The contracts are a cost + contract, you are aware of that.

I'm really happy you thought the food was good, I don't have a link, I got the number from someone in DoD they told me, they are credible. The cost is not like someone is handing $56.00 to the guy at the end of the serving line it takes into account logistics, food prep, storage, servers, clean up, utensil costs but hey, thats how you cost out a food business.

The food in a chow hall was always pretty good but when we were in the field we ate C-Rats no dried stuff just good old canned food, we didn't have the luxury, I'm really proud of you.

Blow your hole all you want and sing the praises of KBR/Halliburton one day you'll learn who was fucking you, but I understand sometimes it takes a few years.

IBM has been providing some pretty promising tech results the last 6 months in solar cell energy increase and lower cost options.

Heliovolt as well.

http://www.geek.com/articles/news/ibm-breakthrough-to-significantly-reduce-solar-energy-costs-20080520/

lots of dead wafer fabs around the world and the count is growing 7 with the 8th coming in Austin in the next few months. Let the gover ment use them before deer run down the empty halls and grass is growing threw the floor.

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/presskit/22505.wss

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/05/ibm-concentrator-photo-voltaicsolar-power_.php

I still see windfarms popping up at crazy speed in Texas and this is a much more quiet option.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/nov/09/miniature-nuclear-reactors-los-alamos

If they can make solar power work in the pacific northwest, than all our prayers are answered.

I'm just talking about DFAC meals (what elemak couldn't stand), which are the ones i've always heard ran in the 40+$ range (my "reliable source number" was $46 a plate. still high, but whatever...I also heard it went down to $27 after the first two year contract ran out). Pretty sure MRE's come from a different contract.

Sorry to hear yer DFACs sucked elemak. All the KBR DFACs I tried were green zone, and even the worst ones had at least 2 entre lines, a salad, and dessert bar. There was leaked memo going around from someone complaining about the cracked state of the lobster shells at one of them (the leaker, of course, contrasted it with that weeks death tolls, bitching about the priorities of the POGs in the FOBs). I mean hell, there was a weekly seafood night. All of them were vastly superior to self run DFACs of local defense contractors. And yeah, I was there long enough and worked in varied enough places to have tried just about every place that served food in the IZ.

If any of you ever do get a green zone gig, find a way to eat at prosperity at least once to see what a good DFAC looks like. Christ, not only did they have ice cream and mongolian bbq, they made shakes!

LOL, wow. Hearing all this talk of chow lines makes me remember when I was in, and we only got 1 hot meal a day while deployed.
And I was Aviation. The general consensus among other MOS's were that we were spoiled, because of the 1 hot meal. MRE's were the order of the day, otherwise. And if you wanted it hot, you could leave it out in the sun, or put it up on the engines of the Blackhawk after it landed...

If they can make solar power work in the pacific northwest, than all our prayers are answered.


LMAO, Amen!!! btw it's not always that grey and gloomy here. only from Oct. thru June.

I'd be really interested in solar power here in Florida. It rains every day for 10min but then its clear skies. I know at one point UF was tyring to get gainesville homeowners to help with some research and development of solar panels for home use.