Comments

Yeesh. *I* need an editor, too. Make that "Grammar and Syntax Nazi". :-D

This new trick for concentrating solar power is nice, but it doesn't do a darned thing for solar power's chief weaknesses-- feebleness and fickleness. Solar power is very dilute-- only about a 1000 watts per square meter at noon on a summer day at mid latitudes. Your average car has maybe 10 square meters of surface area (EFFECTIVE) to play with, so it will only intercept about 10,000 watts of power. Even assuming an optimistic conversion efficiency of 30%, that's only 3000 watts, or 4 hp, to run the car. That's not nothing, but it might as well be nothing-- you'd be lucky if the car could maintain a steady 10 mph ON LEVEL GROUND. So much for solar-powered cars. Solar power is also unreliable-- flicking a switch or turning a key does not cause the Sun to shine. Batteries help with that, of course, but they aggravate the weight-and-power problems in a vehicle. This is a neat trick, but it ain't gonna revolutionize *anything*. Central-station power-- whether coal-, oil-, or nuclear-fired, is going to be with us for many generations to come.