Happy Birthday

So, I was wondering what's really important on this day?

• I started my voyage around the Sun at about 2 am on 28th feb 1988 and today I've orbited the sun 17 times.
  
• Legaly, I'm an adult from now on! {oh! really }
• The moon circled me about 240 times
• The year was 1988, leap yr, if I'd born a day after....on 29th....Feb...?
• Mom said it rained that day
• India celebrates National Science Day on the 28th February of every year. It is on this day that Sir.CV Raman discovered Raman effect in 1928 and recieved Nobel Prize in 1930 {Physics}.

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Moving on..
I had another big idea...
which can, {I think}
> Revolutionise Solar Cars,
> Generate energy from traffic on roads,
> Efficiently Capture solar energy from the roof of your home
> Can be installed in high-rise buildings.
But first, understand what's a Solar Tower. See the animation below;

Image courtesy: Sandia National Laboratories
Animated by Mridul

See that the ground surface is flat and still we are able to concentrate sunlight, without using any parabolic reflectors etc.
So,
Now imagine a miniature version of this arrangement. Tiny little reflectors {like the heliostats} are mounted on a flexible {say plastic} sheet. These reflectors are mounted in a checked arrangement, just like the chess-board. And we'll use some form of electronics to control the alignment of the reflectors.


Control?
With a digital circuit controlling the alignment of reflectors; just like pixels are controlled in LCD screens; we can 'tell' the reflectors to face the sun and align in such a way that sunlight is focussed on a point in space.
Results? {Imagined ;) }
Visualise a Solar car covered end to end with such a sheet. And we can add a mini tower on the top of vehicle. This tower will act as a collector of sunlight and it will channelise the intense beam of light into the body of car. Then, we can seperate this light-beam into its constituent colours {spectrum}(earlier post) and place solar cells at the blue end and a stirling engine {heat engine} at the red end.

See! we have increased the power of Solar car:
Present Day Solar Car Power = Light+Photovoltaic cells
Our Solar Car Power = [Light+Photovoltaic cells]+[Heat+Stirling Engine] => More power
See the Difference!
Other uses of this idea will be discussed later. Its 4 am now; I'm feelin sleepy. Ceya

Do you like this idea? Any Questions?
Please provide Feedback.
Feel free to do so. Click on "Comments" below

Cost of Pollution

Hello!
A thing always comes to my mind when people say that renewable energy is way too costly than simple fossil fuel energy.
Let us see what exactly you pay, using renewable energy in contrast to conventional fuel energy.
See, in the case of fossil energy,

1. Extraction costs {Fossil fuels are extracted (mined) from deep inside the earth, includes refining cost}

2. Transportation costs {Fuel is transported to power station}

3. Equipment cost {Machines used in the power plant}

4. Transmission costs {Wiring costs plus transformer costs; Electricity comes to our home through wires, of course}

5. Finally; the cost of waste generated; The cost of Pollution {Nobody bothers to include this to your bill but you are paying it anyway; explained below}

And in the case of Renewable Energy (lets take Solar!)

1. Equipment costs {Major one, cost of Solar cells or Solar panels or Solar concentrators; One time cost}

2. Essential Accessories {Batteries, inverters etc.; One time cost plus maintainance costs}

That's All! {Free energy; No wastage; Clean; Pollution free; Less use of Resources; Full control; Flexible & Everything Nice}

What is the cost of pollution all about?
It is nothing but the price it takes to remove Carbon dioxide(Green House Gas) from the atmosphere which is generated as a waste product from the power plants and industries. It is the major contributor to Global Warming and Climate change. Currently, there is no way to remove this gas from the atmosphere, artificially, because the process itself consumes energy {a lot}, the generation of which creates more harm than good! Of course new techniques can be employed which use Solar energy to remove excess CO2 . As this one.

And how you are paying this cost anyway?
All of the 5 steps listed above in the case of fossil fuel energy produce waste carbon dioxide and other polluting substances like particulate matter, Carbon Monoxide, nitrogen & sulfur compounds etc. which are responsible for a host of health problems including Asthma, Hypertension etc. and Carbon monoxide is a well known poisionous gas. Nitrogen & sulfur compounds cause acid rain etc.
So you're paying the cost in terms of increasing medical bills, costlier energy, changing climate etc.
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This post just describes an idea. I'm accumulating the data now and a new entry with animation effects is due to be posted soon. So bookmark {add to favourits} this page for future reference.
If you have any questions/comments about this; please comment by clicking on the link below.
Please help Support this idea with some data you find relevant!
Regards,