Re: Global Energy etc.

[Hugh Haskell <hhaskell@MINDSPRING.COM>]

> Edward Teller has recently provided 'the' answer to global warming.
> Blocking about 2% of our solar input power will do it. His scheme is
> a set of obiting reflectors. Another is to block 2% of the sun's
> radiation with a single big reflector at the SOHO Lagrange position.
>
> Going 'back' to nuclear will require a TREMENDOUS PR effort.

Teller has a habit of coming up with "utopian" proposals that in
themselves pose enormous technical problems ("star wars" and particle
beam weapons were both ideas he pushed hard for). Collecting 2% of
the sun's energy output will require a 100% efficient collector of a
size equivalent to 2% of the area of the sphere upon which the earth
orbits, or about 1.3 X 10^22 m^2, or a square about 3/4 au on a side!
Once we get the energy collected, how are we going to get it back to
the earth? If we try to pump that much power through the atmosphere
using microwaves, say, we will be able to give new meaning to the
term "global warming"!

Of course, we could put the collector closer to the sun and make it
smaller, but that would just make the trnsmission problem bigger.

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
<mailto://haskell@ncssm.edu>
<mailto://hhaskell@mindspring.com>

(919) 467-7610

Let's face it. People use a Mac because they want to, Windows because they
have to..
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