The article mentions light bulb durability. There was a cartel, the awesomely-named Phoebus Cartel [1] that encouraged its members to reduce the typical operating life of bulbs from 2500 hours to 1000 hours to increase bulb sales.
So the author's list of 'Why Stuff is Bad' should * certainly * include 'lack of anti-trust laws and enforcement'. Rent-seeking, anti-trust, regulatory capture should all be mentioned in this under-thought blog product.
Seriously, not mentioning useful regulation and standards as a countermeasure to the negative trends the author describes seems like willful blindness.
Hotter _incandescent_ bulbs (e.g. tungsten wire, halogen, etc.) produce more light than cooler ones, but the heat is still wasted. That's why such bulbs are going away.
With non-blackbody bulbs (e.g. florescent, LED, etc.) the light is produced directly. Any extra heat is still wasted, but we can (and do) engineer to reduce it, thus making the bulbs far more efficient.
A new video from NELHA shows off-grid water tank manufacturing in Kona, Hawaii using concentrated solar heat. With most of the Big Island dependent on rain catchment, tanks are a critical resource - now made inexpensively without fossil fuels.
With the understanding that DIY is great, and this is a super-cool project, etc, we've used this [1] commercial door opener from Omlet (chuckle) with great results. Can be set to open/close at specific times, or manually, or after light/dark with programmed delay. No decapitations so far; auto-opens if there's resistance to opening above a mild threshold. Wifi connected if desired.
IMHO I also think they erred in going for 'moon-shot' uses of solar thermal energy (hydrogen production, making cement) vs lower-temperature applications like plastic molding etc.
Low temperature heat would compete against things like industrial heat pumps. These can upgrade lower grade waste heat back to the intended temperature and generate multiple units of heat energy per unit of work energy. So, solar thermal loses advantage vs. PV here.
Very useful tool, allowed us to generate enveloping gears easily that were difficult Solidworks and Alibre. Thought the hardware crowd here would find this interesting. (No affiliation, just wanted to get them some visibility after they proved helpful).
Do you have a blog post about that? It may be a good submission. Did you 3D print the gears or use traditional metal workshop methods? It was a replacement or a new gear for your solar project?
I have no inside info re Ivanpah, but we often get folks asking if our H1 heliostat [1] can extend the generation window of an existing PV array, or if they can mount PV on our H1 to extend the working day.
While both 'work' technically, you're still paying to buy and maintain the electro-mechanical system of the heliostat to get an improvement in PV output [2]
So, the active-tracking investment is in competition with the brute-force approach: just buy and install more super-affordable PV panels. e.g. put some oriented for morning light, some for afternoon, etc.
I've heard first-hand that SV VC investors were shocked how fast PV got cheap vs more-complex / active systems like Ivanpah.
If you're optimizing a single PV asset for max output (constrained PV panel supply), active tracking pays off - but in most non-maritime or space applications, it's better just to install more fixed-position PV panels because they are cheap and because supporting a mechanical system can be expensive.
All that said, we think there are huge applications for non-CSP use of heliostats, e.g. for industrial and agricultural heat. [3]
But CSP's usefullness for electricity production is uncertain at best, IMO.
Yeah, more panels almost always FTW. I manage a microgrid on Hispaniola that serves a farm and a small community. The bottom line almost always falls on”more panels instead” no matter what improvements we are contemplating. Sometimes it’s “better batteries” but usually it’s “more panels”.
I am super late to mention this, but we use sendcutsend also, great results. For 3D work, was surprised not to see https://www.hubs.com/ mentioned - used to be 3DHubs. US and international multi-axis machining, 3d printing, etc. Quite helpful.
[shameless self-promotion] We're building one version of Solarpunk at LightManufacturing. Fun visuals in videos below. Off-grid real-time manufacturing using solar heat, without energy storage, transmission lines, etc.
We've operated out of modified shipping containers since day one, molding durable parts used around the world with heliostat arrays. Coworkers include road runners, western fence lizards, and lots of talent out of CalPoly. :)
Hey now!
house and shop here in Nova Scotia is solar pv, it just works. local old time foundry here built a solar fresnel lense and mirror rig, and did some casting in aluminum and bronze, "Lunenburg Foundry", there is a bit of non technical stuff on the web somewhere.
"Nova Scotia Solar" puts out a manual for passive solar construction that works in Northern areas, and there are many others tinkering, and succeeding with passive and semi passive building.
The main thing about solar is that once its up and running, there is no monthly bill, and if it's time to run outside and hang out with the critters, try and see things there way, it's no biggie.......bring...brrrrrring...."ya what?"....
"um I thought I should call and say I'm feeling great.... ,so I wont be in today"
