-Robert Heinlein, "Let There Be Light" IN Heinlein, The Man Who Sold The Moon (London, 1963), pp. 33-48 AT p. 41.
"'The sun is pouring out more than we'll ever need...'"
-"Holmgang," III, p. 32.
"'Free power! Riches for everybody! It's the greatest thing since the steam engine.'"
-Heinlein, op. cit., p. 43.
"'There'll be factories springing up right away all over the Southwest - every place where there's a lot of sunshine. Free power!'"
-ibid., p. 47.
"'Power!... No more fuel worries, no more Martians freezing to death because a converter fails, no more clan feuds on Venus starting over uranium beds -'"
-"Holmgang," ibid.
The next step is a Dyson sphere and there is also sf about that.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
A space based solar power system would be ideal in many ways.
Ad astra! Sean
No matter how good your solar panels are, you still have the problem on a planetary surface of storing the energy for the times when the bit of planet you are on is facing away from the sun.
To a limited extent you can use solar power to run some industrial process & store the result for later use. However, the capital cost of the industrial plant *usually* makes it more economic to run continuously. Maybe if the solar power is enough cheaper than other energy sources the trade offs will make running only during the day the best option.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Good points, which again makes me think nuclear power is the way to go if we want the massive amounts of energy a high tech civilization needs to function.
Ad astra! Sean
BTW I once again showed up as 'anonymous'.
I know other people had this problem & eventually solved it.
Any suggestions?
Jim Baerg
Kaor, Jim!
I don't really know for sure. When I signed up I clicked on my name in the combox options.
Ad astra! Sean
I found something that works
Kaor, Jim!
Good!
Ad astra! Sean
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