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"The bacteria operate at an efficiency of more than 80 percent" Really? If this technology is able to convert energy from sunlight + co2 into carbon based fuel

"The bacteria operate at an efficiency of more than 80 percent" Really? If this technology is able to convert energy from sunlight + co2 into carbon based fuels at 80% efficiency, that's quite astounding. Something like that could solve the whole energy storage problem we have with solar and wind energy. Almost sounds too good to be true.

digi_owl 9y ago
The elephant, as always, is "will it scale?"...
- agumonkey 9y ago
  btw, is there a mindset about centralization efficiency (as in large scale manufacturing) vs small scall distributed ? If everybody bred these as they see fit, the scale issues might not appear. But I'm surely missing something.
- tomjen3 9y ago
  It is bacteria. Those usually have no issue scaling.
- visarga 9y ago
  Elephants don't scale up. Sorry about that.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
sp332 9y ago
I think it's referring to how efficiently it uses the energy after it is collected by the solar panel. So the collection itself might be <20% efficient, but the synthesis of new materials can be very efficient after that.
bluGill 9y ago
There is more than enough sun falling on the ground in deserts to supply all the energy humans use at ridiculously small conversion efficiencies. It doesn't do us any good because we don't know how to capture that.
- SCHiM 9y ago
  No the problem there is actually transporting that. It's no use to build a solar farm there and then stretch a long copper powerline back to wherever it is needed because of the losses involved.
  - bluGill 9y ago
    I was including transportation issues in capturing. There is also the storage problem.
    - Cerium 9y ago
      No storage problem if you build a global superconductor power grid.
      - knicholes 9y ago
        Of course that requires superconductors that are reasonably inexpensive and relatively robust and maintainable!
  - twic 9y ago
    "The studies concluded that the extremely high solar radiation in the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East outweighs the 10–15% transmission losses between the desert regions and Europe. This means that solar thermal power plants in the desert regions are more economical than the same kinds of plants in southern Europe." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desertec https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desertec

digi_owl 9y ago

The elephant, as always, is "will it scale?"...

agumonkey 9y ago
btw, is there a mindset about centralization efficiency (as in large scale manufacturing) vs small scall distributed ? If everybody bred these as they see fit, the scale issues might not appear. But I'm surely missing something.
tomjen3 9y ago
It is bacteria. Those usually have no issue scaling.
visarga 9y ago
Elephants don't scale up. Sorry about that.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

sp332 9y ago

I think it's referring to how efficiently it uses the energy after it is collected by the solar panel. So the collection itself might be <20% efficient, but the synthesis of new materials can be very efficient after that.

bluGill 9y ago

There is more than enough sun falling on the ground in deserts to supply all the energy humans use at ridiculously small conversion efficiencies. It doesn't do us any good because we don't know how to capture that.

SCHiM 9y ago
No the problem there is actually transporting that. It's no use to build a solar farm there and then stretch a long copper powerline back to wherever it is needed because of the losses involved.
- bluGill 9y ago
  I was including transportation issues in capturing. There is also the storage problem.
  - Cerium 9y ago
    No storage problem if you build a global superconductor power grid.
    - knicholes 9y ago
      Of course that requires superconductors that are reasonably inexpensive and relatively robust and maintainable!
- twic 9y ago
  "The studies concluded that the extremely high solar radiation in the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East outweighs the 10–15% transmission losses between the desert regions and Europe. This means that solar thermal power plants in the desert regions are more economical than the same kinds of plants in southern Europe." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desertec https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desertec