Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Read a similar article to this months ago, but I came across it again last night and thought I'd add it to this discussion...chances are solar is about to become a heck of a lot cheaper - panel wise anyway.

major breakthroughs in reducing the cost of solar electric cells

We've decided we'll wait and see what happens with this development before we consider going the alternative power route...could be a big saving in waiting, though it would also be great to support an Aussie designed system like the sunball/cube...price is a big factor for us though.

The big killer for an off the grid system is the batteries as you say VB...generally total replacement every 10yrs is the norm for lead acid batteries currently used for solar applications...I think for an average home you'd be looking at about $10K...so basically add $1K a year for batteries.

Chris and I and others had a good discussion about this over at PRI a long time back...seems NiCd (Nickel Cadmium) batteries *should* be being produced for solar type applications, but for some reason the Chinese are the only people making them (could be down to the profit in the re-use side of lead acid batteries or expense in manufacturing for NiCd...I'm not really sure to be honest).

IIRC, Chris mentioned old windmills in the US from the 20's and 30's he'd come across which had an NiCd battery system and they were still going strong on the original battery!

The fresnel lenses are neat - there is a company in Arizona or California that is producing rectangular arrays like that. On their site (can't find them at the moment) they talked about resistance losses that happen when one solar cell is shaded and another is not, which can be a problem with these lens systems. The newest thing is a panel that uses a holographic lens, that is otherwise a mostly clear panel. This works good for bus stations and whatnot.

http://www.cleanenergypartnership.org/n ... cfm?id=179

There is a solar power plant going up that is made up of clusters of collectors with mirrors and a teeny Stirling steam engine that was in the news a couple months ago:
http://www.stirlingenergy.com/images.asp?Type=all

I have seen Aquaponics in a movie and it was Christopher Walken. Thing is, I watched only a couple years back and already had my Aqua. I think he was just netting fish from an indoor tank I didn't see it rigged up but I do recall a moment of intense interest. It played on telly so no chance of a rewind.

Worth a look anyway it's a good movie for sci fi buffs like you lot.

Brainwave?

Brainstorm.

half "obtained". would have been easier going to the video store, but......