Eco-Friendly Football Fields
Each week I receive at least 3 or 4 infographics that speak to environmental issues, and in most cases, I ask the sender to become a guest blogger and write something original while presenting the piece. Here I decided I would simply do the job myself, insofar as I like the novelty of the subject, and I have something I’d like to say about it:
I think there is something ironic about an eco-friendly football stadium, insofar as the sport is intrinsically brutal, as evidenced by the insane percentage of wife-beaters and other violent criminals who play(ed) in the NFL (the U.S. National Football League). In that regard, powering a football stadium with solar PV is like building a solar-powered electric chair; it’s just a senseless mash-up of incongruous ideas.
Gee, a solar powered electric chair. That would put new power into the statement that an execution that would take place at high noon.
But how long before some expert would point out that using solar thermal is far more efficient than first converting the sun’s energy to electricity.
I suppose that is what happens when we apply a popular concept to every situation. “When you have a hammer every problem becomes a nail.”
I too hope that we can develop solar thermal, but it doesn’t look promising right now.
Solar thermal has potential. (Though we hope not for the implied use.) Windmills are more efficient than wind turbines so also solar thermal for manufacturing applications that need heat might be more efficient than PV or Solar thermal/electricity.
I wonder if anyone has tried a manufacturing or recycling operation using concentrated solar. A parabolic dish can easily achieve temperatures in excess of 2000c. A used tire remelting facility? Used metal? Glass? http://lightmanufacturingsystems.com/technology/ Most likely there would have to be an additional incentive. Manufacturing in a country that did not have a reliable power source might be one example.
Along the same lines absorption air conditioning systems can use heat for AC. http://www.estif.org/st_energy/technology/solar_thermal_cooling_and_air_conditioning/ Is it only economies of scale limiting more widespread usage and expansion from commercial to residential systems? As we suffer a heat wave here on the East Coast I wonder how long before the power fails and all AC becomes a prayer.