Clean Energy Concepts That Show a Misunderstanding of Physics

At an average rate of one or two a week, I get suggestions for clean energy concepts that demonstrate a lack of understanding of the laws of physics.  The last 24 hours has represented a spike; I received both:

• A call from someone who claimed he can generate 250 mW from 10 acres of solar PV (far more than the incident solar power), and

• An idea I’ve seen before in various manifestations, the notion of extracting energy from cars as they drive along the roadway.  (Obviously, you can extract the energy, if you don’t mind slowing the cars down, causing them to burn more gasoline.)

At the core of the discussion, of course, lie the first and second laws of thermodynamics, i.e., you’re not going to get more energy out of a system that you put into it, and there will always be losses along the way.