Super Soaker Inventor Aims to Cut Solar Costs in Half

Damn, that guy's on a roll, then.

 

Man that is alot of arms...I could arm a child water soaking army with that!

 

lol, that made me laugh.

 

That's really cool. It's clever.

 

Only cats would fear you.

 

Also, wicked witches.

 

Rite of passage? He already has a 100 patents.

 

He's got some competition:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070719011151.htm

jag

 

Good. Hopefully they'll compete for even more cost effective ways of utilizing solar power.

 

heh, you think the oil barrons are going to let solar power ever catch on?

me no think so....

 

Totally agree. The other thing that's picking up in popularity are vertical axis wind turbines that can be mounted on top of buildings:

http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2007/09/mariah-powers-w.html

They basically allow for catching and harnessing power from wind regardless of how strong the current is or what direction it's coming from. I've seen a number of different variations of this, design-wise. I know that they're pretty common in Holland, now. With this and solar power poised to break out, my guess is that eventually everyone will be putting more power back into the grid than they are taking out. That would change the business models of electric companies from a utility service model to more of an "energy broker" where they pay the people putting energy back into their system a dividend and then in turn sell the excess energy to the government or to poorer regions of the world that can't or don't have the means to generate their own power.

jag

 

To be honest, I think people have had it with the oil barrons. You can only contain or stave off technology for so long before it just becomes too attractive to consumers.

jag

 

That seems like something that should have already been commonplace by now.

In my town, we've got a very strong wind that blows in through the Ohio River Valley. It can be felt even on the top decks of the skyscrapers dowtown. That seems like a very cost effective way of harnessing power. Whay aren't we doing that?

 

What match are the oil barons for.... Super Soakers?!

 

I've read that it costs anywhere from $2500-$5000 to install one of these contraptions. Some of them are very, very innocuous and hardly noticeable to anyone, as well, so aesthetically it's not a problem. Surprisingly, the technology is relatively new, though, and is just now starting to become more available with a lot of startups beginning to offer them for sale to the general public. It's almost like something that was so obvious no one really thought of it before for some reason. I suspect we'll see saturation of these things pick up over time as more companies make them available and costs continue to fall on them.

jag

 

have you guys seen these?

http://www.oksolar.com/roof/

stylish and efficient

 

What's the cost of these in comparison with regular roofing shingles, though? Most of this technology has traditionally been very cost prohibitive to the average consumer.

jag

 

so long can be anything up to 50 years from this point depending on how far innovation has gone in that period.

This world will have brothers and sisters fighting over cups of fuel before solar power takes over.

 

not sure but I was discussing it with a few friends and they were talking about some kind of government loan program where you can take out a loan and pay it off with the extra power you generate definitely worth looking into once I build a house...

 

It's not about supplantation, it's about supplementation. We'll see a mix of various energy sources, both old and new, long before one wins out and takes the whole shooting match. It's not "all or nothing".

jag

 

$5000 is dirt cheap. I should install one on my home.

 

the problem comes with the affordability and relatively easy access and the human inability for the masses to quickly adapt to new trends.

Take petrol cars for example, even though the technology has been available for at least a decade, fuel cells have yet to truelly take off with hybrid motors being the best compromise.

I must admit i'm not fully aware of all the details surrounding the motor industry but i suspect getting the price down and getting the word out has been a major factor hindering its progress and it isn't being helped by the oil industry who i'm convinced are going to milk their cash cow for as long as possible.