Solar Panels....

[Dangerous Bob]

Quick thought while I was sat here waiting for the kids all to disappear to school and reading an article on solar energy in Spain.

If we build enough solar panels, would it affect the earth heats up?
The solar energy that the earth absorbs, obviously heats the planet up, so if we build enough panels, converting that energy from heat to electrickery, would it cause the earth to cool down, hence solving global warming?

Therefore if we decided that it was getting too cold, we could turn a few off, and let it heat up a bit....

I'm a genius, me....
Off to buy shares in solar panels before somebody else hits on the idea...

[Trig]

An interesting thought..

[Myocardial Infarction]

Technically yes it would result in cooling if taken in isolation, BUT as most of the use of electricity is to then generate heat the effect would be negligible.

Also the effect would be a rather disproportionate as the air around us would fall in temperature slower than the ground covered by the panels. You'd probably get some pretty funky weather effects, ultimately more than likely leading to a change in rainfall and therefore we could all die from starvation

Better solution than solar panels would be to use photosynthesising microorganisms as you'd then produce a more blalanced effect with a reduction in C02. Oxygen produced could be farmed and utilised to improve the efficiency of a mass burn energy generation plant. Much cheaper than producing all those solar panels and very little waste produce unlike with the panels.

[Nellyboy]

Batteries are the biggest problem we will have. None are good for us and we would need quite a few. I would have thought directly powering devices is the way to go forward and just go to bed when its night time.

I like the look of this <a href="http://www.windturbinesnow.com/magnetic ... rbines.htm" target="_blank">Beasty.</a>


<a href="http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2 ... 194069.htm" target="_blank">Wow, go China go.</a>

[Hammer]

Looks interesting technology Nelly.

[andrew]

Taking Bob's point on, it would surely (in my mind) be a horrendously large project to cover the planet to the point that it would generate a problem. It would also ruin the land beneath them for any use other than storing dust, as these would need to be on massive techno farms covering no doubt good arable land. I know this will be counter acted by the question if everyone had one on their house roof, but I honestly can't see that in my lifetime in this country at least.

There are lots of interesting and sometimes whacky ideas about how to generate for the future, and hopefully some of the better ideas do come to proper fruition, but there has to be something in it for the commercial bods or it will just get starved off by these global giants, until its probably too late or they've got another alternative going. If it was the case i'd be selling my farts for 50p a throw and retiring next week, bulk commercial production is what matters to how we've built our little worlds not pipe dreams of micro generation, in the short term at least, would be nice if we had a massive rethink on how we do everything. We all know that won't happen until its forced upon us.

Population control anyone ? Might be a good place to start..........

Have I gone off the point yet

[Claw]

The majority sustainer of the earth's climate is due to the oceans. The oceans absorb the heat from the sun and then release it nicely moisturised... and that is an ultra-ultra-simplification of the process involved. The oceans also absorb the bulk of the CO2.

The earth's resources are being over-taxed and generally hacked to bits. People live and build in stupid places. Earth is pretty well mapped out where fault-lines are concerned. So, to have a Nuclear Reactor on a fault-line and then say, "Well, we didn't think that would happen!" is idiotic. If you cross a road without looking and get run over by an articulated lorry, you'd be pretty stupid to then say, "Well, last time it was just a bicycle!" The same in New Zealand, why dig a mine shaft that runs parallel to a fault-line?

These things are nothing new to these governmental hypocrites. During the cold war Russia's threat to the US was to detonate a well placed underground nuke in an attempt to drop California into the ocean. These people know more than they let on about the Earth's dynamics.

Look after the earth, and it'll look after you... but, you're not the ones in charge are you?

[Nellyboy]

If solar panels are so good then why is it not a building reg that roof tiles are all solar? This would make them as cheap as chips like everything else that is sold in the millions.

Answer me this please. How can you get paid for putting electricity back into the grid with your surplus solar energy? This just sounds like rubbish to me and pure marketing bull.

If digging a well is cheap and supplies free water for life then why have we not got one in our gardens?

[Myocardial Infarction]

The majority sustainer of the earth's climate is due to the oceans. The oceans absorb the heat from the sun and then release it nicely moisturised... and that is an ultra-ultra-simplification of the process involved. The oceans also absorb the bulk of the CO2.

Yeah microorganisms the ocean in and of itself doesn't absorb anything in a steady state

Bio farms would allow the production of food products as well as fuels and have a positive bio-stabilisation effect. Fertile land should not be disturbed to allow creation of these but implementation in hot, equatorial countries with deserts would be a good use of a majority of the worlds land mass.

If solar panels are so good then why is it not a building reg that roof tiles are all solar? This would make them as cheap as chips like everything else that is sold in the millions.

Because their really rather innefficient and not really a long term solution.

<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Answer me this please. How can you get paid for putting electricity back into the grid with your surplus solar energy? This just sounds like rubbish to me and pure marketing bull.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Not marketing bull m8e, I know a couple of people who receive a net inflow into their household for having solar on their roofs, but the initial cost outlay for photovoltaic(sp) is not something that most individuals would consider as payback on smaller installations does take a while, larger installations are obviously a little cheaper on overall installation so produce a more reasonable payback period

<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->If digging a well is cheap and supplies free water for life then why have we not got one in our gardens?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Because not all land has water at a suitable depth or through a suitable medium. Certain rock types are required to allow the water to seep into the well. Hard rocks like granite are not very good at allowing water through and unless the rock cracks and forms fissures that link together then water cannot flow. Clay can be a help or hinderance in water flow, as it creates a seperation layer that can either allow or stop the flow of water, some times it's helpful most times it's not.

[Claw]

If solar panels are so good then why is it not a building reg that roof tiles are all solar? This would make them as cheap as chips like everything else that is sold in the millions.

Answer me this please. How can you get paid for putting electricity back into the grid with your surplus solar energy? This just sounds like rubbish to me and pure marketing bull.

If digging a well is cheap and supplies free water for life then why have we not got one in our gardens?

It would mean people getting off their backsides and doing stuff for themselves... can you really see that happening?

Myo's post comes out with a load of excuses, but in reality, if people set their lives up in harmony with how they actually live or need to live, then much of what you say would be doable.

Think of Windows 7 and all the things it can do. The majority of people who own computers today could do what they do in DOS. So many people live such an unrealistic lifestyle. How many people slog for almost a year to then go abroad to lounge around a pool in a hotel for just a week or so? That's a cows life! Much on a load of fodder and then get milked in a nice shed...

People need to sit down and evaluate what they want out of life for their family now, rather than waiting until they're are retired and too old to do the things they wanted to do while they were younger.

The problem with wells and things like that are with matters such as health & safety legislation, but there are measures that could be taken to capture rain water. Then you could possible consider items like this <a href="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... K:MEWAX:IT" target="_blank">Immersion Heater Element</a>.

There are loads of things a person could do, if they really wanted to - and I've already started.