why outer space?

>
> > For example, today, wind power is about the cheapest
> > source of new
> > electrical energy (5-8 cents/kwatt/hr I think).
> > Wind resources between
> > the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains are
> > enormous. For the
> > future, one of the possible alternatives might be
> > space based solar
> > energy. NASA is doing a little bit of work in this
> > direction. It
> > should be encouraged.

At the moment the bulk power in Ontario is provided at $0.04/KW/hr.

>
> This is encouraging. I live in Washington State and I
> just read in the paper that they are planning to build
> the largest wind farm in the world along the Columbia
> River Gorge. It's about time. The only complaints
> I've heard about wind so far are occasional noise from
> the turbines, birds flying into them, and issues
> related to energy storage.

Birds flyinto them makes the species better by killing off the ones
that are stupid and blind.

If the it is so cheap the wind power will probably be used as the bulk
power keeping the more expensive methods for peak period, storage
shouldn't be an issue unless you the power generated is continuously
more than the bulk power requirements.

>
> Speaking of energy storage. I once saw a picture of a
> house designed by the Fraunhoffer Institute in Germany
> that was completely solar powered and it stored it's
> energy, not using batteries, but in the form of
> hydrogen and oxygen. The solar panels powered an
> electrolysis machine which separated the two gases
> from water, stored them, and then fed them into a fuel
> cell when needed. I thought that was pretty cool.
>

I had seen a similar article about a similar house in France. It used
CO-O2 fuel cells.

Bill