Proof Space Solar Power Can't Compete!

On 10/06/2012 7:32 AM, Bill wrote:
In . it,
says...

Il 09/06/2012 19:24, Bill ha scritto:

For a start the railways (I know, America doesn't 'get' railways, but
the rest of us do) would shift to broadcast power in a moment, right
now they get to spend a fortune on stringing expensive high voltage
lines in places convenient for people to steal them.

The railways have large amounts of space adjacent to their tracks, have
set times when things happen and run, quite literally, on rails. If
broadcast power was practical they'd be using it.

If they can't broadcast power from a railway station to a train how on
earth are they going to get it down from space?

so you're advocating the return to steam traction ?

Generating the electric power on the train using diesel fuel or pumping
it down big wires seems to work just fine.

In time I imagine we'll be using vegetable oil of some kind and lower
resistance wire, although not until silver stops being a 'treasure
metal'.

Silver's conductivity is only about 1% higher than that of copper, but
it's about 17% denser. Except where space is at a premium, or the
chemical properties of silver are useful, it makes no sense to use
silver instead of copper for a conductor. Just make the copper 1% more
in cross-section, and you get the same resistance as for silver for a
lower mass (which affects supporting structures).

Sylvia.