[HN Gopher] AuREUS: Aurora Renewable Energy (2020)
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       AuREUS: Aurora Renewable Energy (2020)
        
       Author : cconstantin
       Score  : 28 points
       Date   : 2022-02-19 18:43 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.jamesdysonaward.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.jamesdysonaward.org)
        
       | danbruc wrote:
       | What is so hard about providing numbers? At least give a
       | meaningful efficiency number. Maybe an attenuation coefficient in
       | the UV band. A cost estimate? There is essentially zero useful
       | information, a lot of talking and pointless demonstrations. This
       | really makes me think that the numbers are left out intentionally
       | because they are absolutely underwhelming.
        
         | Fnoord wrote:
         | Agreed, although [1] gives some idea. It would allow large
         | buildings to use their windows as solar panels at about 75 to
         | 80% efficiency if we follow that graph. Anything under 50%
         | compared to conventional solar panel would be misleading given
         | the graph. But because there's a lot of windows in a skyscraper
         | they get a lot of volume. I would assume people owning a
         | skycraper are usually businesses who got the money to burn on a
         | long-term investment.
         | 
         | I wonder if this is patented.
         | 
         | Also, that James Dyson award seems to yield them credibility.
         | 
         | [1]
         | https://www.jamesdysonaward.org/Document/06e5abae-0a5c-4a64-...
        
           | danbruc wrote:
           | I have zero confidence that this illustration is based on
           | even a single actual number. What would a full lot area
           | circle mean? As if there is any standard solar farm size. But
           | even if you just take the mean or average solar farm size in
           | some region at some point in time, shouldn't that then be a
           | full circle? And the typical solar farm covers only the area
           | of three building lots? This has almost certainly been drawn
           | by the marketing department based on nothing.
        
             | nautilius wrote:
             | Also, simply cramming more cells into a certain footprint
             | does not simply scale the yield in the same way - there's
             | only so much energy coming from the sun per unit area. I
             | understand (?) that the whole concept is to go for 'rays
             | that are otherwise lost' but it's an apple to mole rat
             | comparison at best.
        
       | blincoln wrote:
       | I wonder if uranium glass would work for this as well. I can't
       | find the link now, but I remember reading years ago about
       | someone's DIY UV imager where they used something like that as a
       | fluorescent screen photon converter so a conventional detector or
       | film could capture the image. Maybe the material used here is
       | more efficient, though, and hopefully less radioactive.
        
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