Comments on: MIT Develops Way to Bank Solar Energy at Home

By: Euroflycars

Euroflycars — Thu, 06 May 2010 16:59:48 +0000

The MIT is a State-sponsored institute — and the State is on the side of the big energy lobbies keeping us hostages at the outlets of their supply networks.

Hence, don’t expect the MIT to seriously contribute to breaking that State-corporative monopoly! At best, they will make believe that they hold the key to personal energy storage, at worst they’ll try hard to discourage private initiatives.

After all, hundreds of millions of children around the world are still waiting for MIT’s Nicholas Negroponte’s 100-dollar-PC…

Another Nicolas — i.e. Hayek, the father of the Swatch — has recently founded a Swiss company named Belenos Clean Power (with a member of its board of directors named… George Clooney), announcing the production of low cost popular photovoltaic cells and personal hydrogen production plants. But Hayek’s main associate is a bloke named Philippe Virdis, the boss of one of Switzerlands biggest electricity producers…

And we should not forget that Hayek’s Swatchmobile (which is now the Smart) was a fake project originated by Volkswagen to curb a few advanced private projects of hybrid and electric cars in Switzerland — a country where no automaker was deemed to obstruct these initiatives…

By: Shon

Shon — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 01:49:52 +0000

Why pick one (solar or wind)? I imagine there’ll be a day when we figure out how to harness just about any type of energy that comes our way. At some point it won’t necessarily be about which one power source is used, but how many.

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 05:02:49 +0000

Kudos, we do need alternative sources of energy. But as we work on the subject lets seriously consider; ease of access of the energy, low cost alternatives and user friendly processes of tapping the energy. Lack of these is among factors that greatly slow down the initiatives for application of alternative energy technologies.

By: gerry

gerry — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 03:37:00 +0000

I believe compressed air in cars is the way to go. One could use wind power or mirrors onto a small sterling engine [hydogen] to operate over a long time. 12 hours say geared down to compress cylinders with air so that when you come home you slide one cylinder in the car and one out to be refilled.

By: Randy Vincent

Randy Vincent — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 02:02:40 +0000

Wind is a source of energy not a method of storage. What I’m asking is where are the resonably priced batteries. Company names, producers of storage units thats what I need. I’ve read about some roof covering silicon based PV panels that also have a series of small lithium batteries run in an array that acccomplishes the same thing as a one or two big battery units (units the size of an a/c unit). Again any info on home storage that is not 20k for your basic home is what we all need. The PVs’ are equitable in even 5-10 years, its the storage that is keeping on the grid and solar energy for individuals out of resonable reach. Please reply with some real solutions. The sun shines, gives excessive energy (i.e. the second tallest building in Japan). But at night we need the excess to be stored on site, not repurchased from our local energy providers. And this is coming from someone in an area where it is straight metering return not net metering or no buy back at all. We need STORAGE plain and simple. Please reply with sources or resources for the same. Thankyou RV

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 02:29:19 +0000

Wind for practical reasons…you can’t buy a 45% efficient solar cell yet

By: Randy Vincent

Randy Vincent — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 01:59:27 +0000

I also would like to see all homes and vehicles solo. The problem is storage either with wind or solar. Combination systems solar, wind and tide where possible generate an excess of energy. Batteries are still expensive, net metering or sell back still keeps us on the grid. Storage on an individual (per home) situation thats the question. Answers anyone please:)

By: Jim Barnett

Jim Barnett — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:44:28 +0000

Very interesting subject, but the author should have included more facts or at least a reference for more info such as:

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/oxygen-0731.html

By: Jan Vermaut

Jan Vermaut — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 18:06:24 +0000

Which energy source is more efficient, solar or wind?

This looks like an irrelevant question, or at least a poorly state one:

1. wind energy is an indirect form of solar energy, as wind is generated through pressure differences in the atmosphere due to different heating effects on the atmosphere and oceans;

2. inefficiency is a characteristic of transformation processes, not of energy sources. When speaking of efficient energy transformation processes, do we mean the actual situation, or the one with the most potential? and to we mean physical efficiency (percentage of energy available) or economic efficiency (giving you the most energy for one dollar) ?