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Monday, April 21, 2008

Passing ideas

I've been remiss in updating...failed miserably really, so now this blog should be used more often now. But more so as a means of musing on some random ideas in head. No real attempt at quality or depth, just a schizophrenic sounding board that'll hold my random thoughts.

To Look Deeper Into:

Solar cell efficiency- It is becoming more and more obvious to anyone with a smattering of gray matter that we have to start looking more seriously at renewable sources of energy. Biodiesel, it turns out, is fairly wasteful, environmentally and financially, and has turned into yet another source of easy subsidies for the massive agricultural industry. Solar energy is one way. There's a massive amount of energy being unused, the question is how to effectively gather and store it. There have been some pretty amazing advances in material and chemical engineering the past couple of years that promise to increase solar cell efficiency by over 100%. How can we profit from this? Where can we lay solar cells? Once the technology makes efficiency less of an issue, there will (or should) be a greater demand for these cells.

Wind Turbine- Wind energy is growing and demand for turbines has well outstripped supply. The custom nature and backroom shop nature of some of these smaller turbine manufacturers means orders take a lot of time. There should be potential not only in design but in the manufacture of these newer designs Flowind Design.

With a long backlog of manufacturing orders and continued design improvements, there is room for massive growth in the industry. Design is important, but actually getting the product built and to market is where the money and results will be. NC has a strong machining history and good machinists. This a potential area for people to move into, not to mention an area the state should look investing into.

Note: Check and see if there are any wind turbine manufacturing or design firms in NC.