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San Francisco utility buys video game power production

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  April 14th, 2009 at 01:43 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

The San Francisco-area utility company PG&E wants to buy fictional energy from a company that up until now builds air conditioning and solar power for individual homes and buildings. Specifically, the SolarEn LLC, despite its ugly webpage and track record of exclusively small-scale deployments of solar power, claims it’s going to send satellites into space to gather energy, and then beam that energy SimCity-style to stations on the ground.

PG&E is not only endorsing this idea, but it’s signing a contract with SolarEn to promise to buy this energy. Despite the basic problems the idea has, they’re giving this company credibility and want the government to do the same!

While it’s true that solar power works better outside the atmosphere than in, the problems with beaming the energy back to earth are the same ones that make solar power on the ground less efficient! SolarEn claims they will use radio waves instead of the SimCity original microwaves. This is more realistic, in that radio waves won’t have the same safety and water vapor issues that microwaves would have, but at the same time radio waves inherently transmit less energy, due to their having of a much lower frequency/longer wavelength than microwaves.

But even so, any ham radio operator will tell you that even radio waves can be affected a great deal by the atmosphere. And guess what? The higher the frequency (and therefore energy capacity) you choose, the greater the problem is, as traditionally ionospheric refraction of radio waves happened best with shortwave radio.

Yes yes, it’s neat that SolarEn can tell us all about what kinds of satellite launch facilities they could use for this, as well as what kind of solar panel they’d use, and how much more effective solar panels are outside than in the atmosphere.

But until you have a clearly defined way to get the energy to Earth, you’re just selling a scam. I’m reminded of T. Boone Pickens when he sold his wind power plan. He mentioned that transmission of the power from the wind hot spots to people’s homes was a detail that had to be overcome, but he gave no indications that he had any way of overcoming that.

Until I see otherwise from SolarEn, I think it’s nothing but a scam here. They’re deceiving investors into thinking they have more than they actually do, with the hope that if they get enough money they’ll figure out how to actually do it. The California PUC should have no part of that, and so probably should reject this plan as long as there’s no free market in power in this state.

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COMMENTS

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  • lorabush

    It does seem a bit fantastical, but then again, Nikola Tesla was convinced that electricity could be transmitted wirelessly, and trying to do so was his life’s work. No, he never did it, but he did discover x-rays, invent radio, harness electricity and may have been the first person to split the atom, so I am slow to dismiss his ideas. We are still discovering that some of the things he was saying back around the turn of the century were right.

    So I am hoping this is real, if only to vindicate my long-deceased hero.

    Also, because I am hoping a company as big as PG&E isn’t comprised of lunatics.

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    So was Linus Pauling. But Pauling’s earlier work didn’t make any less kooky his efforts in later life to sel ridiculous amounts of Vitamin C as a cure all.

    I think the same might be said of Tesla.

  • http://hillbillypolitics.com Steph C

    Enron was big, too. Look what happened to it. That was my first thought when I read the article: Enron rising from the ashes and given a new name.

  • Dave_in_Fla

    Then we shall have unlimited power and perpetual motion.

    Small dose of reality. We can’t keep satellites that are powered by the sun without any of those pesky weather effects in operation perpetually. But somehow we are going to beam power to earth over radio frequencies?

    When someone invents a way to power my laptop using my wifi card, then I’ll believe it. In the meantime, I’ll plan on shorting PG&E stock, they are clearly run by imbeciles.

  • olsmithie

    There have been some experiments with short range transmission to power small loads and the like across the room, but don’t hold your breath until the long range transmission becomes a reality.
    I am not saying never, just no time in the immediate future.
    (We’ll have nice clean fusion by then, won’t need the satellites!)

    Regards

  • char

    But the cost is not. There is no way to make solar in orbit cost effective with any conventional or unconventional power supply, even our expensive electricity here in CA. When it costs around $1000 to put one pound of solar cells into orbit, it does not take a rocket scientist to see that there is no way this can work.

    Recently the DoD did a study and found that the only way to make space based solar power work would be to supply electricity to remote areas where resupply is difficult and extremely costly (e.g. Iraq due to IEDs). It is completely impractical in the marketplace and will never be remotely cost effective when compared to ground based solar power (which is not cost effective when compared to coal or nuclear).

  • char

    Global warming scare mongering is the best thing for utility profits. Here in CA you can’t build more power plants of notable size and yet demand continues to grow. What to do? Charge more for the electricity you do produce so that people will use less. Utilities make a killing off of electricity due to artificial scarcity and they don’t need to make more power plants to boot!

  • char

    the luminiferous aether (wrong) and aliens on Mars (wrong). Smart guy? Absolutely, but he was probably more eccentric than Salvador Dali.

    If anything, Tesla is a testament to the fact that humanity is moved farther forward by geniuses than groups, that humanity desperately needs geniuses, and America is where foreign geniuses come to live and to create a better world.

  • Next93

    He’s also proof that there’s a fine line between genius and raving loon, and that being a genius in one field does NOT make you a genius in every field (his AC motor design was truly amazing, but he was an stunningly poor businessman).

  • Next93

    You’re correct that the enviroweeney strategy is to cut back on energy use by raising the price (THAT part of “supply and demand”, they understand!), but it’s not by having the PUC pass rate increases; it’s by raising taxes (big surprise) on your electricity bill, and then “rebating” people who don’t actually pay taxes, so that the rate increase doesn’t really effect them.

    Expect a massive increase in your power bill, but the only part of that the power company’s going to get is the blame.

  • Next93

    Add to that the fact that, contrary to popular beleif, solar cells don’t last forever.
    As I recall, they drop to about 50% of peak output within 10 years in earth orbit due to the radiation and, if they’re in LEO, surface abrasion by atomic oxygen.

    B y the way, solar cells aren’t all that efficient at the conversion process to begin with. That’s why most terrestrial solar operations use some sort of mechancial conversion process; you can’t use that in space because it’s so much heavier than a solar panel.

  • DONTREADONME

    as a person working with photovoltaic power cells which are some of the most efficient converters of light energy to electricity ~33% require a laser to produce a narrowband of wavelength to provide the power. That is because of solid state physics; however, driving these PVC or PPC (Photovoltaic Power Converters) which are great for remote powering electronic using solely fiber optics they have a tendancy to fail due to the stresses of heating up and cooling down rapidly. The excess photonic energy is usually converted into heat, that is the flaws in the semiconductor material start to fracture from the streses. In space it is a double whammy extreme cold and heat, plus flares and cosmic rays (particles) will start to do a number on the panels in time. Just thought I would help on the topic. I just do not understand this whole providing power via solar panels. Yes it is good for small applications that do not require critical technologies (terrestrial) but they do put off quite a good amount of heat as a result of the conversion process. That is the electrical conversion at best 20% some heat and some reflected. Anyway sorry for the drive by.

  • DONTREADONME

    it was not Marconi. The story of Edison vs. Tesla is quite an interesting story that all here should read up on.

  • Next93

    One thing that the AGW alarmists haven’t been able to do is provide is an upper atmosphere heat signature, which would actually be proof that a greenhouse effect is operating. The lack of this signature pretty much makes the whole global warming/runaway greenhouse fantasy about as scientifically valid as Nuclear Winter or the Piltdown Man.

    If we start pumping large amounts of radio waves through the atmosphere, I’d expect that we’d see some interaction with the ionosphere, resulting in some significant heating. So the environuts would finally have the proof that they’ve so long desired. The fact that the proof of thier “crisis” was actually the result of thier “solution” will most likely be swept under the rug by the accomplice media.