EvMick@aol.com wrote:
>
> In a message dated 9/11/00 1:42:44 AM Central Daylight Time,
> bradbury@aeiveos.com writes:
>
> >
> > The *dark horse* will be based on light harvesting methods
> > currently found in plants. Once these systems are cloned
> > and available as easily manipulated laboratory tools, scientists
> > will develop energy harvesting, storage and production systems
> > based on biotechnology based self-replicating systems.
>
> I like that idea...
>
> Seems reasonable...if milk goats can have spider genes spliced in so that
> spider silk is produced in the milk it certainly sounds reasonable to have
> grass supply electricity....
>
> Just a little further down the design curve perhaps...
>
> Sheesh...is that gonna throw a wrench in OPEC's gears...
Not neccessarily. Photosynthesis is only 1-3% efficent, and the theoretical
limit of the ATP cycle is about 5%, as I recall. Where agriculture based
generation gets its advantage is that its cheap to grow acres of the stuff,
since it does it itself, where silicon cells are expensive to make, even at
current industrial rates.
The difficulty with grass that generates electricity is conductors. You'd have
to run electrical conductors along the ground, and have the grass plants weave
themselves into series/parallel networks to conduct energy, with two types of
roots that grow toward different metals, like copper and aluminum, so you can
draw current from the field to the grid.
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