Let’s get small
Vikto Klimov has figured out a way to get more efficiency from solar cells [Solar crystals get 2-for-1 TRN 051904]. This is good news. Our collective ingenuity, when directed at the right problems, is capable of what seems to be an unending supply of insights and breakthroughs. I am very optimistic about the possibility for great innovation in energy research.
Some of the key scientific insights of the last few decades have emerged not from the “bigger is better” approach, which seemed to prevail for the first half of the twentieth century. It seems we are now going to move ahead by getting smaller and smaller. Modern communications devices; computing technologies; genetics; quantum research; new energy technologies - they all seem to be succeeding by getting smaller.
Think of the engineering and manufacturing achievements of the microprocessor. Billions of transistors on wafer of silicon. And yet, we are still not approaching the scale of the most amazing aspects of the physical universe, such as the human brain. We can get smaller yet, and beyond that there is the quantum universe with different laws and different opportunities.
Human’s have become too big for this planet. We must become smaller or perish. The way to do that is to achieve greater and greater efficiencies that reduce our footprint. One way to reduce footprint and think smaller is to democratize power production and consumption.
Right now global power production is dominated by big power production and centralized distribution companies. This needs to change so that each individual has a way to contribute to power production by implementing local technology solutions that offset or eliminate the need for power consumption from a central source. Efficient technologies like Klimov’s bring that ideal closer.
