I recall some stuff a while back about the amount of pollution/energy required to make the home solar systems, vs. their output, being questionable in the big picture. Though clearly they would help with a stressed grid, ala California.
There was a rather cool solar concept I recall reading about, I think in Jerry Pournelle's A Step Further Out. Effectively, have the solar arrays in orbit, where there's no atmospheric interference, and beam the resultant power down via microwave. With an antenna grid about 2m above the ground (IIRC) the expected ground level radaiation was low enough to graze cattle underneath with no ill effects. Seemed an interesting idea to me.
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Date: 2006-09-27 10:06 pm (UTC)There was a rather cool solar concept I recall reading about, I think in Jerry Pournelle's A Step Further Out. Effectively, have the solar arrays in orbit, where there's no atmospheric interference, and beam the resultant power down via microwave. With an antenna grid about 2m above the ground (IIRC) the expected ground level radaiation was low enough to graze cattle underneath with no ill effects. Seemed an interesting idea to me.