Sandia pushes limits of solar technology

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RE: $150K each times 11 acres? Huh???

First, no-axe, you must learn to get your units right. There are 640 acres to a square mile. So that's 11 square miles x 640 acres per square mile == 7040 acres to replace hoover dam.

B.T.W. It would be a tremendous bargin, if we could replace a Multibillion dollar Nuke plant with a 150K$x6x11 acre == 10.2M$ investment. Sadly that is not to be, since your math skills need consirderable improvement.

Hoover dam generates two to three times the amount of electrical energy produced by a typical commericial nuclear reactor. Likewise nuke plants need large cooling towers and/or bodies of water. Then add the exclusion zones, for plant protection, etc. Thus the difference in real land usage, (SPP .. 7040 acres/3 verses nuke), isn't all that great. As for Hoover dam, care to guess how big the Lake Mead reservior is?

Since the individual units will be spread out by a minimum distance of two times their height. (You don't want one unit shading another.) That leaves the land underneath them available for other purposes. I.E. Raising crops, grass land for graising animals, etc.

The most productive placement would be to located them in the arid regions of the southwest. The extra shade would significantly reduce crop water consumption, thus adding a secondary benifit.

For the benefit of ZDNET readers,here is a link to some pictures. http://www.stirlingenergy.com/images.asp?Type=all

Posted by: thetruth_z   Posted on: 11/25/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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