Re: three mini-rants

On Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:08:14 +0000 (UTC),
Greg Andrews <gerg@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in
<g4asst$8gq$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

Lawns 'R' Us <nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
On 2008-06-29, Jasper Janssen <jasper.janssen@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Wed, 25 Jun 2008 08:59:02 -0500, Satya <satyap@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

ObHarebrainedIdea: Why not use sunlight focussed through fsck-off great
magnifying glasses to raise steam for power generation? Or at least help
in raising boiler temperature?

The lenses would be too expensive. That's why they're using mirrors.

I find myself wondering what the relative merits of mirrors, standard
every day lenses, and Fresnel lenses would be like...


The need to keep the lens between the target and the moving Sun,
together with the large area of sunlight that needs to be focused
(at ground level), and the fact that lenses absorb a fraction of
the energy that they focus, makes them a bigger headache than mirrors.

Overall, the least bad solutions appear to be large fields of mirrors,
either each illuminating its own thermal absorber or several (up to
thousands) illuminating a thermal absorber. One of the thousands-of-
mirrors-style mirror fields and tower-style absorber is on the Sandia
National Laboratory grounds on the south side of ABQ, and is *VERY*
*HARD* to look at when it's illuminated. That sucker is Brilliant! I
expect it's also very hot. Cue the A. C. Clarke story about why anyone
would want to put a rocket motor in a football.

--
About Lotus Notes: Think of it as a golem -- a malevolent golem, hugely
strong. Walk into the swerver room at night, with the lights out, and
you'll hear it growling under its breath, and you'll see its eyes glowing
-- or maybe you won't, if it gets you first.
.

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