As I said in my first article, I think we should harness the heat from the sun by using magnifying glasses to focus this energy and store it with water. Here is one idea on how to do that, a water battery.
BUT FIRST, let me ask a question, what happens when you heat water? Answer, the molecules get excited and move faster, this leads to the liquid expanding, the more the heat the more volume the water takes. After that, the water starts to BOIL, rapidly trying to release all the extra energy and then changes form to a gas and floats off via evaporation. Knowing this, let us use this fact to help.
Here is one idea on how to make a water battery. First thing we need is a container that can insulate very well, because once we add all this extra heat from the sun, we do not want all that energy to radiate off. Second time we need is a container that can hold a lot of pressure. The nice part of making containers is that you can make one container inside another container. What we want is to keep the pressure and heat increasing and we would need a release valve, so the pressure do not cause the container to turn in to a bomb. The last part of the equation is how do we add this extra energy without losing energy and pressure. Well the nice part of using the magnifying glass is you have to focus all the solar energy on a single point to be most effective. So then all you need is a singular point on the container that is both highly conductive of heat and able to maintain itself under high pressure, most metals meet those standards. As long as input in is greater than output out, your in business.
A few pointer before you start your trail and errors, boiling the water before you add it to your contain will speed up the time you have to wait before you can harvest your final product. Heat and high pressure systems rise(go up), so you might want the entry of the solar power to your system towards or at the bottom of your container and on the flip side, you might want your release towards or at the the top of your system. If your system is over-heating, remember, the exspanstion of gas causes a cooling effect. You are going to need a cover of your solar entry point when the sun goes down. Remember, we are going for energy collected over time, the sun spits out about 1000 watts/square-meter, if you get more than 25% of that, you are already doing better than the solar panels.
I made my battery, now what? Time to use that energy in a productive way, if your a science freak like me, you should have watched Future Cars on t.v. and know that someone has already built a car that runs on air pressure over in Europe, France I think, go get a hold of him and have him make you an engine, or the whole car!
It is not always easy to know what the next right thing to do is, but it very easy to know what the next wrong thing is.
