[Stoves] Solar for peace (Re: Dieter)

Sun Jan 29 23:29:49 CST 2017

Dear Nikhil,

A comment on your question:“Didn't solar PV originate in the space 
program, and wasn't there some literature on using solar energy for 
warfare?”

40 years ago, Wacker-Chemie in Bavaria started developing silicon wafers 
for terrestrial solar cells (not for space application, which was able 
to pay the costs of about 1000 USD per Watt in this time). An enormous 
cost reduction was targeted for the application on earth. The project 
was intensively funded by the German federal government. We worked hard 
and developed the processes required for fabrication of 
multi-crystalline wafers, which are now in use worldwide. I worked in 
this program for 14 years and I see this development as a good example 
of the helpful, peace-building and poverty-fighting solar technology.

30 years ago, I installed a photovoltaic lighting in a Spanish 
farmhouse, owned by the family who received me as an 8 years old child 
in 1950 for 9 months, when Germany was in ruins and my family with five 
persons had a living space of 9 square meters. The installation in 
Murcia had a 40 Watt panel with a simple 2-axis tracking device. A 
SK-parabolic solar cooker (600 Watt) served for comfortable cooking (of 
course in combination with a hay basket) and we saved quite totally the 
consumption of LPG.

The peace-building effect of solar technologies can only develop when 
they are well adapted and applied. We all have responsibility for a 
humane future – more or less, depending on our possibilities. I think 
that Appropriate Technology/Intermediate Technology (E. F. Schumacher) - 
as discussed in this lists - is fundamental for this future.

Best wishes,
Dieter

Am 29.01.2017 um 10:45 schrieb Traveller:
> Dieter:
>
> Dieter:
>
> I for one am thoroughly ignorant of many things and don't know that a 
> humane future requires low resource consumption and low emissions. I 
> just watch the dramas.
>
> Nor am I sure of if claims about solar thermal v. PV will hold up ten 
> years from now. With wide-spread grid expansion and rooftop or 
> backyard PV, PV is already competitive with daytime peak grid costs in 
> many places (though as usual the rich are subsidized in Washington, DC 
> or Germany).
>
> Solar dire ct thermal is useful for larger-scale cooking, I already 
> noted.
>
> I like your ideas about peace through solar energy. Someone just 
> discovered a 1984 draft of my magnum opus "Atoms for Peace, Atoms for 
> War, Atoms for Profit" in Princeton library. I should now do a Solar 
> for Peace, Solar for War, Solar for Profit. (Didn't solar PV originate 
> in the space program, and wasn't there some literature on using solar 
> energy for warfare? Even going back to the Greeks? I am suffering from 
> premature senility, it seems).
>
> Nikhil
>
>
>
> Message: 26
> Date: Sat, 28 Jan 2017 15:10:43 +0100
> From: "Dr. Dieter Seifert" <doseifert at googlemail.com 
> <mailto:doseifert at googlemail.com>>
> To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
>         <stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org 
> <mailto:stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org>>
> Subject: Re: [Stoves] Biomass stoves v. PV-induction cooking (re:
>         Frank)
> Message-ID: <c864548e-09dc-7219-a65e-437ea2747e43 at googlemail.com 
> <mailto:c864548e-09dc-7219-a65e-437ea2747e43 at googlemail.com>>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"; Format="flowed"
>
> Dear Nikhil,
>
>
> We know that the humane future requires low resource consumption and 
> low emissions. The transition to cooking with PV is the opposite of that.
>
> When we compare PV-cooking with solar cooking, we see that with solar 
> cookers the solar energy is converted directly to the required heat, 
> practically without intermediate processes. With a 1.4-m reflector
> cooker with an effective power of about 500 W you can bring to the 
> boil more than 30 liters of water per sunny day, you can also roast, 
> bake, preserve and do much more. Attending needs only a few seconds 
> per hour.
> (See: http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Dieter_Seifert 
> <http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Dieter_Seifert>Documents: "About 
> Peace Making Effects of Solar Energy").
>
> Cooking with PV with 500 watt would require a PV system with minimum 
> one axis tracking with approx. 4 square meters of PV-panels. The solar 
> panels would cost about 500 Euro without installation, chemical 
> storage (battery) and without the cooker. For cooking with battery 
> there are not only additional costs. The battery has a limited 
> lifetime and a large consumption of limited resources ? the opposite 
> of the necessary way. If we think of people in need, this PV 
> application is hardly viable.
>
>
> Best wishes,
> Dieter
>
> ---------
> (India +91) 909 995 2080
> //
>
>

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