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To: Moominoid who wrote (68246)	8/29/2005 1:04:52 AM
From: Elroy Jetson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

Photoelectric cells with a higher level of energy conversion than plants is news to me. When ARCO was involved in photocells in the late 1970s and early 1980s we were intrigued, but the economics they presented were so much worse than geothermal, it was all rather sad. I have seen some reports of studies, such as from the University of Urbana, of synthetic photosynthesis concerting nearly 100% of sunlight between 400 and 700 nm -- or 40% of the sun's radiant energy, which is really extraordinary. ARCO at the time was down around 15%. .

To: Moominoid who wrote (68246)	8/29/2005 2:27:55 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

Moom, for a couple of decades I've been thinking about buying a few million acres of outback Australia and turning it into Brazilian tropical forest. To shelter the plants while I develop my ecosystem, I'd plant 1.5 metre diameter photovoltaics 4m apart. Then I'd pump sea water in, using the electricity to run the pumps. The photovoltaics would separate the hydrogen and oxygen, and some would be sold as fuel cell food [once I had sufficient deionized water for the plants]. I could ship in heavy crudes and fill them with hydrogen, making low aromatic gasoline and other clean fuels. Hydrogen is good stuff if you can get it cheap enough. Oxygen has its uses too. Breathing is a good thing for a start. I'd separate the gold and some other metals out from the ocean, then sell the salt around the world. Some would be iodized, zincified, seleniumized, etc so people could get micronutrients cheaply, conveniently and safely. Hey presto, electricity, hydrogen, oxygen, nutrient salt, plants of all sorts, gold, and the rest of Australia will get a better climate too once enough area is established. Note greenie jargon = sustainable, no greenhouse effect, etc etc. Whole cities will build around it as they always have around natural resources such as harbours, oil fields, river confluences, agricultural peneplains, etc. Lucerne and other plants fix nitrogen from the air, so we could export fertilizer too. There is lots of silicates in Australia so the photovoltaics could be made on site in a fully self-enclosed economic sytem. There would be imports of cyberphones made by QUALCOMM and exports of nitrogen [in liquid form which would cool superconductors for those zoomy little suuperconductor maglev personal transport vehicles I've mentioned], fertilizer, oxygen, hydrogen, plants of various types [wood, food, paper, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, yew tree juice and other plant toxins], gold, nutrient salt, desalinized water [with vitamins added and flavours for drinking and minerals if wanted]. Greenies are such doomsters. We can sustain 10 billion people in luxury. Of course we won't have more than 3 billion by the end of the century, but their quality will be vastly improved via genetic engineering and growing them properly instead of the hopeless methods used now [filling them with supermarket muck instead of actual food]. Mqurice