hydrogen fuel cell car

[dogscoff]

Best solution to humidity (if it did become a problem) would be to condense it inside the car and then somehow get it into the sewer system.

I don't think all solar panels in Manchester can produce enough electricity to illuminate my flat on average "sunny" day

Actually, solar panels do not need a bright, sunny day to work. They produce just as much energy on an overcast day. Oh, and I'm pretty sure that a house with solar panels covering its roof can expect to be pretty much self-sufficient. Flats/ office blocks where you have a lot more people space for the roof area are a different matter.

Did anyone readd that thing about generating power from the Earth's magnetic field? You have a really long cable of some kind on an orbital platform, rotating. Apparently this can (theoretically) be used to generate power.

Of course, how that power then gets back to Earth is a different matter...

[ January 29, 2003, 14:23: Message edited by: dogscoff ]

[couslee]

some time ago I read the residential solar panel Users had an average 25% reduction in home electricy bills. Tho the panels produce about the same amount for different Users, the electrical bill was talk about in percentage reduction. how they figured all that out, I don't know. they do provide electricy, but not enough to become self-sufficent. of coure, recent technology may have made them better, i am just not aware of those advances.

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by dogscoff:
Of course, how that power then gets back to Earth is a different matter...

Most likely microwave beam. That has been suggested as a means of power transfer for all sorts of orbital generator ideas. Nuclear reactors in orbit, massive solar cell arrays that can be directed to face the sun 24/7, etc. It's a technology we pretty much understand, we just haven't done it on that scale yet.

Geoschmo

[dogscoff]

oh, 25% then. Still, it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

Microwave beams do sound cool, except that if the satellite slips out of it's geosynchronous orbit it could accidentally frazzle anything on the ground below it...

[oleg]

Originally posted by dogscoff:
oh, 25% then. Still, it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

Microwave beams do sound cool, except that if the satellite slips out of it's geosynchronous orbit it could accidentally frazzle anything on the ground below it...

Good idea for another Bond movie !

[Sinapus]

IIRC, unless you have a cannister of pure oxygen as part of the fuel supply, you do get some nitrogen compounds in the exhaust. So it's not "only" water as exhaust. Still, it's probably a lot better than petrochemicals.

[geoschmo]

Nitrogen compounds? Fertalizer! Hydrogen cars emit water and fertalizer? We can plant crops in the median between the highway.