Solar energy and HOPE
February 20, 2009
Solar energy and HOPE
Raymond Kurzweil invented the synthesizer that Ray Charles and Eli Myers play. Eli was a member of Randy’s band The Concrete Frogs. Everyone knows Ray Charles. Kuzweil also invented the optical character reader which now is available for blind or poor sighted people to take pictures via your phone of the written word like the newspaper and it reads it to you via your Bluetooth. It also has a translator. So you can take a pic of that Italian menu and it’ll read it to you in English. My mother-in-law has macular degeneration and I thought this is just what she needs. It is available at Amazon.com for $1500. The universal translator is here for $1500! Who knew?
But the most exciting thing (to me) that Kurzweil is up to these days deals with solar energy and nanotechnology. Randy and I went to an event in downtown Winston-Salem, NC awhile back about a researcher at Wake Forest doing solar nanotechnology research to generate electricity. It was a more efficient than silica based solar panels.
As it happens, Mr. Kurzweil is also working on nanotechnology and solar energy and expects it to be ubiquitous in five years. FIVE YEARS!
Kurzweil said that we already have 10,000 times more sunlight than we would need to convert into electricity and serve the whole world. However, 1% of total energy we use comes from sunlight and wind. He also stated that we may be 5 years away from the point where solar power becomes efficient and competitive to fight fossil fuels.
“We also see an exponential progression in the use of solar energy,” he said. “It is doubling now every two years. Doubling every two years means multiplying by 1,000 in 20 years. At that rate we’ll meet 100 percent of our energy needs in 20 years.”
I am moving part my forlorn 401 K that has lost all hope to this investment! It can not do any worse and besides it gives me HOPE!
