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Jan
06

Solar Revolution

Michio Kaku: I believe in solar power, but there are problems that we have to face, and one of them is low efficiency. Michio Kaku: Some people think that th…
Video Rating: 4 / 5

This is the Rawlemon Spherical Solar Energy Generator discovered by German architect André Broessel. This is 35% more efficient than current solar panels and…

50 comments

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  1. bdouble 338 says:

    4:05
    So you say we have to invest a lot more in solar and fusion technologie to
    prevent the world from overflooding because of global warming, and we only
    have a couple of decades left to enter the solar and fusion era. Or else we
    are f*cked 

  2. Adone says:

    What about geothermal, water (YES you can use water as “fuel”), or
    magnetic?

  3. supercooper92 says:

    Really screw up the weather? We would be so lucky if that was the biggest
    problem. What about the plummeting biodiversity because of the loss of
    habitat for land and marine environments. Or the food and water insecurity
    that will face all humans when crops become more and more difficult to
    produce, driving global wars.

  4. ProfOmnom says:

    Solar Cells, sure, but Heliostat (Thermal Solar), work fine. The only real
    issue is space. 

  5. Robert Black says:

    I’d gladly put out a few solar panels to put a dent in the FPL bill, but
    local building covenants won’t hear of it without denying me homeowners
    insurance. Also, the solar panels are not covered if a storm damages them.
    This is a deal breaker in S. Florida, along with often cloudy weather that
    limits the panel efficiency even more. 

  6. Dolce Mantin says:

    The energy revolution that will make everything in the world working!… 

  7. Adolf Hitler says:

    i like it when he says stupid.

  8. baldriss says:

    wouldnt fusion power have even more problems with transportation and
    storing then solar ? There will be hundret times fewer fusion reactors then
    solar plants so you will need to deliver this power across larger
    distances… And if stored – you will have same battery problems

  9. martin shervington says:

    *We will never run out of oil, except oil will become more expensive…*

    Although Dr. Michio Kaku appears to believe in solar power, he arises a few
    problems that we have to face and one of them, in his opinion, is low
    efficiency.

    #sciencesunday #solarpower

    PS: +carey g. butler this video reminds me the discussion we had the other
    day :)

  10. Chastaine eniatsahC says:

    ewww… oil analysts.. 

  11. Diana Mantis says:

    Solar power is the answer to our high electric bill problem and also to C02
    problem too..

  12. World Solar says:

    Michio Kaku On #solar #power and the hurdles we have to take before it
    is a major source of #energy 

  13. FidelKastrat says:

    Mr Kaku, solar is already cheaper!

  14. emanuel cristian Mocean says:

    Michio Kaku explaining vital , critical energy problems gets under 1milion
    views . Lady Gaga doing monkey business gets over 100 milion views. And we
    still wonder about evolution … :)) :)

  15. Kozan Demircan says:

    There is a problem with fusion power. Clean energy won’t stop global
    warming. It will ACCELERATE it. Because fusion plants will pump water vapor
    into the atmosphere. Water vapor is the major contributor of global
    warming. But CO2 is the last drop to cause a runaway warming effect. So we
    need fusion and solar power that do NOT heat the atmosphere. We have
    special air conditioner solar panels now. They cool the homes and radiate
    the heat directly to space WITHOUT transferring to the troposphere.

    http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/april/fan-solar-cooling-041513.html

  16. Arun Prasad says:

    Hello! Have you tried – Maxim Earth 4 Energy (just google it)? Ive heard
    some interesting things about it and my work buddy got strong returns with
    it.
    

  17. Mitchell Glaser says:

    Remarkably short sighted in many ways. In less than two years lots of what
    he said has already not followed his predictions, and he leaves out so
    much! He talks about oil, but neglects to talk about natural gas, which
    has changed the entire picture through fracking. And he does not even
    mention the cost of oil wars like Iraq which cost us a trillion dollars! If
    we had put a tiny fraction of that trillion dollars into solar and
    electrical storage development, we would never have gone into Irag, and the
    Saudi’s would have little leverage on us instead of the stranglehold they
    now have.

  18. STM Polaris says:

    Is it possible to make synthetic oil or recreate it using chemicals and
    materials we have? 

  19. TheWolfHowling says:

    I’m not sure how nuclear fusion would be integrated into the grid as they
    would probably suffer from the same problem that regular uranium nuclear
    fission plants do today; increasing of decreasing electrical generation in
    acccordance with current demand wihich is the reason why nuclear usually
    only generate base load electricity with the exception of some plants in
    France. And you can increasing the efficiency of photovoltaic cells all you
    like but without the ability to storage that solar energy for times of low
    production, it’s not really going to matter

  20. mike jones says:

    and oxygen and salt :O

  21. sok8888 says:

    LOL, this is North America centric thinking. Anybody visiting China would
    have noticed solar heat panel and PV on roof all over the place. China has
    already made it price effective to use solar, and they are now world
    largest renewal energy user already.

  22. Scourge Mathews says:

    Wikipedia can be changed by anyone.

  23. hydraxon1000117 says:

    Unfortunately when the oil prices rise, and meet with the lowering prices
    of solar tech the international system is just going to flip the prices,
    just as they did with the agricultural system of earth. When the prices of
    junk food, candy, fast food, and processing food with high fructose corn
    syrup went up and met with the decreasing prices of natural, healthy foods
    the international system simply switched the prices in order to keep happy
    with what they wanted.

  24. redfed0 says:

    I know that. The comments after my original posting discusses that. But
    honestly, I’m more interesting in LFTRs becoming the next revolutionary
    energy source. Hydrogen is really a negative net gain energy source, what
    makes its interesting is that it is renewable; aside from that, it is a
    sucky source of energy due to that negative net gain.

  25. DanceNickDance1 says:

    Not sure if ad or

  26. Epicnerd73 says:

    With this, solar road ways, wind farms etc, we may be able to completely
    wipe out fossil fuels!! Stop talking about them and start actually building
    them! Get them everywhere!

  27. paytontech says:

    If this is 35% more efficient than just PV cells, which are roughly 20%
    efficient then the system efficiency is now: 1.35*20=27% efficient… Not
    bad I guess, assuming you don’t overheat the PV module by concentrating the
    light on it. Maybe stick it to a sterling engine’s cylinder head to convert
    the heat to work and get some extra energy out of the system while sinking
    heat in the PV…

    I’m curious about the material the sphere is made of. 

  28. Eric Balcon says:

    Sorry but this is not a revolution. even if it does concentrate 10.000
    times the light, it will be on a single spot, the amount of energy before
    and after your device is the same and more precisely a bit less after your
    device due to heat loss going through the device, so no miracle here.
    The real revolution is to use the full spectrum of the light to generate
    electricity with solar panels.

  29. Ahmad El-khatib says:

    Why an expensive glass sphere…why not just a simple mirror..?

  30. suzi turner says:

    *Alternative Energy*

  31. johnstarr2001 says:

    LoL marbles on a solar panel do the same.

  32. Todd Freeman says:

    Why is a tracking system even needed, focus on solar cells that can handle
    the extreme heat, and place them completely around the sphere? 

  33. Varian Moore says:

    It’s is cheaper just to use a 70 solar panel that’s take up the same space
    that ball is heavy and takes a lot of space/energy

  34. GTIBully says:

    Many are oblivious to the fact there are currently many thousands of solar
    powered cars on the road today. Ethanol is a solar fuel. Plants convert sun
    light to sugars and starches which is made into ethanol fuel.

  35. Darthreloy says:

    How much energy to make that giant crystal ball, and maintain it as well??

  36. Cuda FX says:

    beautiful, but extremely bulky, heavy and expensive. 

  37. lildeanturbonc says:

    I think too many of the folks commenting are missing the point, we need to
    work together as a human interface to explore better solutions, people !
    LISTEN we are killing our planet we must act now to reduce pollution,and
    produce enough energy and food for humanity.To those who want to continue
    using coal and nuclear energy,you must not live near where coal ash spills
    in drinking water supplies and constant warning sirens of local nuclear
    plants effect your daily life!!!!

  38. leyuen says:

    you know im more interested in the song than the video.

  39. Passed High School Physics says:

    There are other problem with the facts int he video too. By focusing the
    light energy onto the solar panels the temperature is increased and the
    efficiency decreases.

    As the position of the sun changes, doesn’t the amount of energy hitting
    the PV panel change? Seems to me it would be just as efficient to have
    multiple solar panels pointing in different directions than one polished
    sphere.

    Why do they knock nuclear? It’s clean, and in the terms used in the video,
    “renewable” (yes I know neither one is), but it’s 100% natural and doesn’t
    pollute when recycled.

    I would think he would want to compare it to coal, which is contributing to
    global warming, global dimming, and his killed more people and polluted
    more land than nuclear.

  40. liviu bardel says:

    rip humanity.

  41. Munizipalc Degrab says:

    Much talk and very little real show… just as usual.

  42. rstevewarmorycom says:

    Ridiculous crap. Fresnel lenses are a lot cheaper than perfect glass
    globes. The same tracker can be used with them and then it would be like
    all the other tracking concentrator schemes. If you want it windproof build
    it tougher or put it under glass,

  43. Christophe L says:

    l’avenir dans une boule.

  44. TheSamles says:

    1000th sub

  45. Dublin_Danny says:

    this isnt new! people have been using a glass sphere to track sunshine for
    centuries! 

  46. Hassan Albrkati says:

    pravoبرافووووو

  47. Grumpy Koala says:

    There is a basic logical fallacy here. If you take the solar energy
    falling on a square meter of the earth and focus it on a smaller area you
    have reduced the size of the solar cell required to collect the energy. But
    you still need the square meter of sun light. It is only an efficiency
    gain if the whole apparatus (square meter of solar cell versus small cell
    and focusing apparatus) is cheaper or involves less resources than the
    other.

    I suspect that on this basis the square meter of solar cell wins over the
    “ball” lens and solar cell.

  48. CharlesDourdy says:

    pet peeve here, maybe I’m a grammar a$$hat, but solar is not “renewable”
    energy. There needs to be a cycle for something to be called renewed.
    Unless we find a way to put matter back into the sun to be used as fuel for
    further solar reactions and re-radiation, then there is no cycle, therefore
    not “renewable”.

  49. Ako Siken says:

    i want one

  50. GUNVALKERIE says:

    There is a different way of designing it… make the crystal ball smaller
    into individual ones then hook up fiber optic lines from the crystal ball
    mini’s all the way down towards the solar panels… it just that I don’t
    like the idea of a huge crystal ball hanging over my head if it falls
    through the roof of someone’s home then that person would be injured but
    the basic design makes sense tracking the sun without tracking I liked it
    ever since I saw it

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