I am an engineering student and this is a project I am working on now. I conceived the idea a couple of years ago and the project is finally getting some headway now. My paper has received some very encouraging responses from international conferences and is pending for publication in IEE. I am happy to share it here, and I will try to give the basic idea in the simplest way possible, keeping out technical overtures.

Here we go..With the world exhausting its current reserve of fossil fuels at an astronomical speed at one hand, but growing even more energy hungry at the other hand..we earthlings as a civilisation have to soon look for alternative sources of energy.

Nuclear power as we all know is a double edged sword. The If's and Buts's are simply too scary.

The best option is to develop natural renewable sources of energy and our safe bet is to tap into the sun.

But Solar power technology has its big limitations today in terms of productivity. Two main limiting factors are : 1. Takes a long long time to charge up solar cells. 2. The output power is very low. The amount of power producing capability is still very low. So as you can see these two inter-twined reasons result in low effectiveness and productivity.

One magical bullet that can hit the both the targets at a single shot is what I call SOLASER- to convert Solar Rays to LASER beams before feeding into the solar cells. As you may all know - LASER is coherent, monochromatic, and directional..high power LASER beams can 'Zap' you in a puff! Testing by feeding LASER into Solar Cells , productivity improved leaps and bounds...it reaches a new level of capability. It gives us just the power we want!


But converting solar rays to LASER is the catch.

As you may know LASER doesnot occur naturally. It is not natural light. It is created artificially by stimulated emission. My project tries to achieve just that through an indegenously developed system. Its not perfected yet..I dont get out true LASER..but its as close as we can get.

You may be bemused because its embedded in our public consciousness that we can afterall 'concentrate' solar rays quite easliy by using a convex lens and burn up a paper. Well that's exactly what the latest solar cells do..the solar cells have a plate of convex lens attached on its top , to concentrate the rays better. The increase in productivity through this has been considerable - but does not give us the 'power' we seek.

Another exciting avenue for future of energy is Fuel Cells. But fuel cells too are plagued by limitations very similar to Solar power. Same goes with Wind power.

True LASER from Solar light is a far call off. But SOLASER might just be the future .

Pardon me for sounding over ambitious..but i guess one got to be so to make it through.



Cheers!

Shiv

This post has been edited by shiv: Mar 27 2006, 06:35 PM

Of all the renuable forms of energy, solar energy seems to be one of the best bets for the near and distant future. Primarily, because the sun puts out a great deal of energy through fusion and is distant enough not to immediately pollute the planet. On another front, it's going to be there for a great deal of time - something that is really worth investing time and money into.

Other than this, as far as earth resources are concerned, we could always look at resources like wave action (since we can assume that the moon is going to be around for a while). Solar-power tech should really be invested into, especially for vehicular transport as well as heat requiring industry. As soon as something that's viable for industry to adopt on a grand scale, I'm pretty sure we would be able to look out for clearer skys and cleaner air to breathe.

Actually I believe that a breeder reactor for the supply of energy would be a better choice, and the sun is actually just such an example of one, why harness something that can be done here on earth with samll resources, the Nuclear Industry has been around for years but those that don't fully undetstand it are deathly afraid of it with no real basis other than uninformed opinions of journalists (first-third graders with a college degree in BS).

Look closely at developing the energy from the smaller parts of the earth or universe for that matter. Stars last for eons and will continue to do so, and using a technology like a breeder reactor (which puts out more energy than it takes to fuel the process) would be a step in the right direction, face your fears and conquer them.

The USS Ronald Reagan just commissioned is designed to last 60 years and can travel the world many times over. It is nuclear powered and will require refueling one more time in those 60 years. If you have never been aboard an aircraft carrier, then I can tell you that I have. The energy demand is tremendous to launch and recieve aircraft and feed, cook, bath, and provide the massive electronic and electrical systems aboard such a craft, it is a floating city with a crew of thousands, not to mention weapon systems, the bridge etcetera required to run a ship like that.

Even a nuclear submarine could supply electricity to a small city i the event of an emergency, but due to security porposes this is not done. Get nuclear and be assured of a job for life and refine that and help take the scare out of it to actually improve energy dependence in the near future.

Also learn about abiotic theory where petroleum or oil is actually produced by the earth itself and not from dead animals (dinasaurs) just do a Google on it to see what I mean, and the Russians already not only make use of the theory but prove it to be true.

This post has been edited by Houdini: Mar 29 2006, 12:34 AM

solar laser
Solar Laser: Possible Energy Source in Future

The idea of a solar laser is one I have been contemplating, however using the heat generated to create steam in order to run a turbine and produce electricity. My thought is to use this technology on a smaller scale, producing power for small scale point of use residential and commercial.

-reply by james

Replying to iGuest
Solar concentration, be it laser or 380 mirror truly in my oppinion is the obvious step towards power generation. This particular heat source
(fuel) can be used to heat sea water using various heat echanging configurations , resultant steam for power generation. Sea water used for turbine condenser, hotwell condensate used to feed desalination plant.
Power generation would take care of parasitic load for desal plant.
All I need is an investor

-reply by ike joe