[ExI] Fwd: Help Us Reimagine Energy for the DoD!

[Adrian Tymes]

On Sat, Sep 5, 2020 at 10:16 PM Keith Henson via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>  On Sat, Sep 5, 2020 at 5:50 PM Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat
> <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> > and that there is no possible way they could even conceive of
> bootstrapping the tech with something that costs mere millions of dollars
> and merely powers a few bases.
>
> That seems impossible. But I am more than willing to listen to any
> ideas that would get the cost down.
>

It is obviously not the case that only a high powered microwave signal can
penetrate the atmosphere.  Much lower power densities than you are looking
at, on the same wavelengths, do it all the time with reasonable focus.

As you note, there is a minimum density below which no power gets through.
But there is quite a range between your optimized sizes and zero power
coming through.

As a thought experiment, what would it take to deliver exactly one watt?
Not "one watt out of thousands being received and piped into the grid".
Rather, the total system output to the grid - after transmission
inefficiencies and all that - is exactly one watt.  It is obviously
possible, if you scale the components down enough.  If, say, you're using
specific diodes from a specific manufacturer that won't register anything
less than a kilowatt (which means just one watt is impossible with those
diodes), use smaller diodes.


> It's based on ten years of studying engineering details.


There are two sets of data you need to begin commercializing this sort of
thing: engineering details and customer needs.

You don't have good data on this particular customer's needs, and dismiss
new data without good reason.

You assume one sort of customer - an industrial, grid-tied power plant -
and you have data for that need.

This customer is not that customer.  This customer is willing to tolerate
much higher costs per kwh, in exchange for the advantages inherent to the
system.  This customer's maximum needs per site are also much lower - thus,
a smaller (and thus cheaper) overall system, even though it is less
efficient, would be acceptable.
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