Solar thermal can be up to 90% efficient? Have you heard of the laws of thermodynamics and Carnot efficiency? The average power plant peaks at about 60-65% efficient.

Sure, right now photovoltaics are only 15-30% for system efficiency, thats system, not just the cells. But PV is not restrained by the Carnot efficiency because it is not a heat engine. More demand = more research = better cells. Just look at the space grade cells and PV concentrator cells. World record right now is about 43% efficient.

Har har. Batteries aren't there just for when it gets sunny, they're a system backup. If something goes wrong with the solar panels, there's still a battery to supply power. The battery is also there to act as a buffer. Chances are at some point you will draw more power than the solar array can put out at a given time, so you need somewhere to store that power.

I realize now that you likely really are agreeing with me. If so, thank you for not being one of those oh-so-clever "what if its cloudy" people.

I am sorry to go on a rant about this, but as someone who works on solar power on a daily basis, I am sick of people assuming that since something uses solar power to generate the electricity, that it will only work when the sun is shining. Ever heard of batteries? Do you honestly think that the ISS is up there, without batteries, which allow a system to draw more instantaneous power than the solar panels can supply, but can be recharged later when the system isn't drawing so much power?

I worked on the solar array for the University of Michigan Solar Car Team and people always thought that they were so clever when they said that it can only run when the sun is shining. God forbid a solar car or anything else solar powered have a battery!

Preview? What's that? Never heard of it.

Spectrolab has the solar cell world record with their triple junction GaAs cells at 40.7% at about 400x or 500x. Amonix Corporation has the silicon world record at 27.6% at approximately the same concentration level.

Current silicon cells are about 15-20% average efficiency, NOT 10-12%. They peak at just over 25% efficient as demonstrated by the research lab at the University of New South Wales in Australia.

SunPower A300 silicon cells average about 20% per bin.

all these mod points come from?

Right, I don't know how accurate the 100MPG really is, but the concept, which was also done (don't remember if it was hybrid or pure EV) to an F150, with 4 in-hub electric motors.

I understand complaints about pure EV not having enough range (but come on, how often do you drive that far in one sitting?), which is why I support serial hybrids, or "range-extended hybrids". A parallel hybrid just makes no sense.

Depends on what Hummer you're driving. See below: "Hybrid Hummer Promises 100 Miles per Gallon"

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/04/behold-americas/

Personally, I think parallel hybrids are incredibly stupid, ex. Prius. Series hybrids, where the combustion engine runs at its most efficient and charges the main drive battery, just make sense. A vehicle's MPG can be greatly increased simply by leveraging efficiencies. Electric motors are almost always more efficient than comparable ICEs, so why not run the ICE at its most efficient? There's nothing saying you can't have a smaller battery pack and run the ICE more, just run the ICE at its most efficient.

I'm not asking for a revolution, just intelligent engineering.

What size rack do you prefer? A, B, C, D, DD? Assorted variations therein?

I read that as "Skin your balls quickly with pool-cue robots." I quickly became concerned until my brain pointed out the pool-cue part of the title.

Instead of sending it back to earth, why not just keep it out there, but collect it all to one central location? We paid once already to launch it out there, and we know we want increase our space presence, so why not have a junkyard where you can go get stuff to recycle? Or, crash it into the moon and build your moon base near it, then you can keep adding to and utilizing it.

It's a LOAN, not a bailout. You have to pay back loans. College students get them all the time, but you don't see people complaining about them.

Computer labs are essential to any good engineering program. The smartest and easiest way to provide access to and support for an array of engineering software is through University run computer labs.

At the University of Michigan, where I attend, there is a huge amount of software that engineering students have access to on any of the CAEN (computer aided engineering network) computers. All my complaints aside, the engineering network is one of the most useful resources. I have a fair amount of University storage space, access to all my files on any CAEN computer, and generally a lot more computing power available than on most student's laptops.

Students will routinely run simulations and analyses on the computers, letting them run overnight, or even days. Above all, without an engineering computer network, student teams, such as Solar Car, FSAE, Baja, etc. would not be able to design, build, and compete on the same level.

A properly run computer network can be a great way to provide access to a huge resource with an array of software otherwise unavailable or too costly for students.

Too bad the US will never see it.