Solar/Wind sabotaged by experimental advanced composites; not incompetence.

reply to post by crimvelvet


Just getting back to you regarding the feasibility of growing crystals for solar in a stone age environment.

Had a chance to talk with my source and he tells me first off that it was 30 years ago and not 15 that he did this. It was the leading technology at the time.

A crucible over a campfire would not work because it would not get hot enough to melt the material itself nor would it be able to maintain heat allowing the formation of a muniscus star. Without this star, you could still grow the crystal but it would be low quality and useless for producing electricity.

A crucible in a volcano might work BUT, the grower, themselves, would have to be able to get within no more than 2 feet of the growing crystal in order to insure this star formation. Also there would have to be some way to keep the temperature uniform. Also the crystal grows at a slow rate (an inch or so an hour) and needs to be turned and the crucible lowered as it grows. All these things would be a problem without a proper suit to withstand the heat for some hours.

So a point for you. No matter how handy a person was, they would be hard pressed to grow a solar ingot in a stone age environment.

reply to post by luxordelphi

Not sure what you're advocating in your posts. Campfires? Coal? Anarchy?

I already stated I prefer Thorium Nuclear.

crimvelvet
reply to post by luxordelphi

 

Not sure what you're advocating in your posts. Campfires? Coal? Anarchy?

I already stated I prefer Thorium Nuclear.

So do you have interests in Norway or are you into particle accelerators?

How many Thorium reactors are currently generating electricity?

0.

This isn't an arguement against the development of Thorium, rather it is an argument against using Thorium as an arguement against wind.

luxordelphi
These components were pre-advanced composites so we never had any defective anything to worry about. (No bubbling of panels; no fires; no explosions; no flying wind turbine blades.)

I don't think the problems are "advanced composites". It's "Made in China", where quality isn't profitable.
Now, virtually all panels are manufactured in China, because the government decided it wanted to own that industry---fund many competitors with low cost loans, increase capacity far beyond demand, force everybody else out of business. Solyndra didn't fail because of government (it did have a significant novel technology), but because of Chinese dumping/production which caused conventional PV price to plummet to 20% of the year's previous at the same time the company was building out a new production facility. That will ruin anybody's business plan.

reply to post by mbkennel


You make a valid point; a good point; a true point and it is easy to blame China and China, imo, can be blamed for undermining the price, whether deliberately or accidentally. However, advanced composites are in use in almost every facet of infrastructure today. They are manufactured/lab produced in many different countries. The patents, processes are held by many and diverse individuals and corporations and conglomerates.

The main problem with them is their unpredictability. A slight change (on an atomic scale) produces completely new results as this man describes:

Solar Industry Anxious Over Defective Panels

“The quality across the board is harder to put your finger on now as materials in modules are changing every day and manufacturers are reluctant to share that information.”

A slight defect (on an atomic scale) can lead to catastrophic failure with reasons unknown and sometimes impossible to know like this man describes:

Space Systems/Loral: A Case Study In Ineffective Accident Investigation

“I have asked myself many times: Why did it take three failures for us to resolve this?” Celli related in a January 4th interview. Celli says that part of the problem with earlier investigations is they just didn’t have the high tech forensic tools available today.

There is also a darker reason, imo, why so many of these materials are manufactured in China. The ultra fine dusts are an extreme health hazard when inhaled and they are also an explosive hazard. Look at the air quality reports recently in the news from Beijing in order to understand what unbridled manufacturing can do to the quality of life.

China operates on communist economics. The state is all. The individual is nothing. So safety, toxic pollution, wages...all take a back seat to the state.

Still...communism is an aggressor ideology and if manufacturing defects were deliberately introduced in order to put the infrastructures of receiving countries at risk - it's a valid point. But China is not the only manufacturer and China's advanced composites are not the only ones that have failed.