Most of the energy we use is because of the sun in one way or another. Geothermal and nuclear power are exceptions. But if we want to have energy independence, solar energy is a vital component.
Solar energy is more than solar panels on a roof. In 1984 I designed something I call a solar stack. It uses a lens to concentrate sunlight into a beam of photons that are injected into an illumination tube. The gas in the tube would be stimulated to produce light that would shine on a hexagonal array of solar voltaic cells with a mirror between each array to reflect more light onto the cells. Some of the electricity would be used to move the lens to track the sun.
An 8-foot stack would have upwards to 48 square feet of solar cells and would have a lens that measures upwards to four square feet. It should produce more electricity than a flat display that measures as much as the lens which would be approximately how wide the stack is. If that is the case, since most of a stack is underground, it would be a bit more expensive. But it would be less subject to damage. If it can produce two or three times more electricity than a flat display that is twice as large as the concentrator lens, it will become very attractive to homeowners that want energy independence.
A stack assembly of six or eight stacks that would be arranged like a honeycomb might supply all the electricity the average home would need. Stacked flywheel units would store excess energy kinetically that would be used at night or during cloudy weather. If the material can store 100 watt-hours of energy per cubic inch and the stacked unit had a total of 20,000 cubic inches of flywheel material, the potential storage capacity would be two megawatts.
Another type of solar stack would be the solar steam stack. It would use the concentrator lens to create a heat beam that would strike steam pipes that would turn either a gas or water into steam to spin a turbine of a turbogenerator. The steam would be condensed below the generator and pushed back up to where the heat beam hits the steam pipe to be turned into steam again. Water could be below the generator to cool the gas or water more.
Today we have mirrors concentrating sunlight on a single tank to produce steam. A steam stack assembly of 100,000 stacks would have 100,000 turbogenerators. If each stack generated a kilowatt of electricity, that would mean a stack assembly that measures 600 by 500 feet would generate upwards to 100 megawatts of electricity per hour during the day. Stacked flywheels that would have a storage capacity of 100 megawatts could spin to generate electricty at night for a utility.
Besides homes, utilities would go for solar stacks. They would be buried out in the desert where there is more sun available and less people. A million-stack assembly might cost no more than a nuclear facility that requires as much land and produces as much electricity. If that is the case, solar stacks might replace nuclear energy to some extent.
The boldest idea I have for a stack assembly is the Saudi Arabian Solar Stack Assembly. It could have over 10 million stacks in the asembly; both solar voltaic and steam. Each solar voltaic stack might by 16 feet long and have 120 square feet of solar cells. If the assembly generated 40,000 megawatts of electricity every hour, it would be beamed by satellite relays to customers around the world.
Solar stacks could be used in space too aboard solar power satellites. Giant induction coils would be used too to use the charged particles in the solar winds to generate electricity that would be beamed down to earth either in the form of microwaves or as the central driving beam in a tri-beam charged particle transmission beam generated by positively and negatively charged particles emitted by my injection reactor. The carrier beam would act like insulation so that there is no loss of energy by the central energy beam.
The Saudi Arabian Stack Assembly would be large enough to be seen from space as would the Death Valley, Gobi Desert, Senora Desert, Mohave Desert, and Australian Outback stack assemblies. The solar satellites would be large enough to be seen from the ground. All of them combined might generate over 10% of the electricity used by the world. When you include privately generated, corporately generated, and publicly generated electricity, over 25% of the electricity generated in the world might be by stacks, provided the concept works as well as desired.
