Intellectual Property Law

LA Readers Write: Renewable Energy

Thanks to Bob Coleman, LA based contributor, for this green tech biz pointer:
Check out Balloons for affordable solar power at Renewable Energy World
Brief excerpt:
December 5, 2008
Cool Earth Is Scaling Up Solar Energy Generation
by Marsha W. Johnston, Contributor
California, United States [RenewableEnergyWorld.com]

Imagine a 1-megawatt solar power plant that has nothing to do with vast swaths of PV panels or mirrored troughs in a barren desert environment that require new transmission lines to population centers. Instead, picture a rolling, grassy field populated with 500 vertical poles that each hold two 8-foot-wide balloons. While cows graze among the poles, the large recyclable plastic balloons, each with a mirrored inside surface, truss and concentrated solar cell, follow the sun's transit thanks to a small electric motor. A utility substation is nearby.

While balloons deployed across the land collecting solar energy is indeed a happy image, CEO Rob Lamkin would argue that the true serendipity of the startup firm's technology has a more important source. "Enough solar hits the earth in an hour to power the world for a year. But flat panel PV installed is US $8 to $9 a watt, whereas our prototype is US $1/watt," he says.

Full post as published by Idea Lawyer Blog on December 10, 2008 (boomark / email).