Understanding Energy Science Vs. Believing Preposterous Garbage
Maybe it’s the drugs. Maybe it’s the anti-intellectual culture. Maybe it’s the budget cuts to public education. Who knows? One thing’s for certain: we live in a time in which many people have lost the willingness and ability to think critically.
A wonderful example is this video on a supposedly super energy-efficient hotel to be built in Norway. I hope you’ll check out some of these claims, and take a minute to think about them.
The building supposedly captures the solar energy that reflects off the mountains. That’s right, the hotel is almost always in the shade, as it’s built at the base of mountains that surround it. But–and think about this–its solar PV functions because the light energy that is incident on the mountainsides and reflects down from them. (I suppose it’s possible that 1% of such energy could reach the PV panels, but that would be a stretch.)
And check out the incredible insulation! It’s built on stilts such that it loses heat through all sides, including the roof, the floor, and the all-glass walls!
We’re supposed to remain optimistic that our society is going to be able to think its way through the thorniest problems that have ever confronted human civilization, but it sure is hard to wear that face.
Craig,
Leaving aside for now the absolutely unthinkable stupidity of the premise that the hotel in question might produce more energy than it consumes..
The question of reflected energy is not quite as cut-and-dry as you make it out to be.
The albedo of snow-on-ice is actually quite high. 70-90%. So – given that this is Norway – if we assume that the mountains are snow-covered most of the year, and happen to have an advantageous formation that would allow a large arc of the sun’s path to be reflected directly onto the area in which they are building the solar panels… It’s entirely plausible that the panels could receive insolation of >1 kW/m2 in total reflected light for several hours per day in the summer. That would be a VERY cool phenomenon in a country that is so far removed from the equator, and worthy of people talking about.
But it’s still a luxury resort, and it’s going to be in darkness for six months of the year, and it’s going to exist in extreme cold weather for six months while having only cool or at best mild weather for the other six months. They will certainly require millions of m3 of natural gas for warmth and God-only-knows how much additional electricity for lighting and entertainment beyond whatever their panels might provide in the summer… So the claim is still just as mind-numbingly stupid as you suggest.
But it’s quite possible that the summer sun might be extremely fierce in a unique bowl amongst snow-covered mountains, and if that is true than it would be interesting.