Recently I've been thinking a lot about power generation and transfer techniques.  Most of the projects that scientists and engineers are currently working on require massive amounts of power that would be impossible (or just unworkably expensive) to generate.  So, I've been thinking about two things:  1) How and where to generate power on the cheap and 2) How to transfer that power to portable units.

Here's the best of the ideas that have been floating around in my head.

1.)  Power Generation

Solar power has been generating intense interest lately as people across the world decide to tap into this free resource.  One of the major obstacles in the widespread adoption of solar power is the cost of solar panels.  Of secondary importance is the fact that power generation takes place only during daylight hours, and ceases upon nightfall.  Given that most appliances and business operations run at all hours, solar power is deemed unfit as an exclusive energy source.

There are many areas around the world that receive intense solar radiation throughout the year.  The vast expanse of deserts in the United States' southwest; the Sahara; central Australia; and other areas contain large tracts of sparsely populated terrain that would be perfect for solar power generation.  My proposal involves not using conventional solar panels and miles of wiring, but solar boilers and satellite power relays.  I theorize that these desert expanses could partially supply the entire world with power.  Since the generation areas are spread around the globe, daylight would not be an issue:  as one region fell into dusk the other region would be experiencing prime power generation.  The satellite relays would transfer excess power to the areas of the globe experiencing nightfall, and these areas would then receive excess power from the next area as they fell into darkness.

The solar boiler (or solar reactor, as I like to call it) is a design cobbled together from various aspects of the energy industry.  I use a track-mounted series of reflectors to create a near-circular ellipse that concentrates solar heat and light on the focii.  Located at the focii is the reactor.  The reactor would be a closed-gas system, using a series of linked chambers to compress, heat, expand, cool, and re-heat a gas.  The main reaction chamber would be heated via focused sunlight and the heated gas would be expressed upward through tubines to generate power.  As the gas expanded through the turbines it would cool and be returned through collection tubes located on the dark side of the reactor to holding tanks below, where it would cool further.  An electric compressor would use stand-alone solar power cells to condense the gas prior to the heating phase.  As an alternative method, the solar radiation would heat a thermal mass and cool fluid would be piped over the heated area, expanding the fluid and shunting it through turbines for power generation.  One of the ideas I heard recently involved using a solid (such as table salt) as the thermal mass.  The solid would liquefy as the mass heated throughout the day.  This mass would retain heat throughout the dark hours and be used to generate steam-turbine power even when the sun was behind the horizon.  (The same principle of stored heat is currently used successfully in thermal mass walls.)

2.)  Power relay.

I have two ideas here:  one involves satellites in a geosynchronous orbit over the power plants and the other involves using split photon battery packs to transfer power.  Obviously, one of these ideas is based on current technology and the other on a flight of fancy!  However, I think both are worthy of evaluation.  The core principle is the same:  remove miles of electrical wiring from the equation. 

Idea 1:  Satellite Power Relays.

Unfortunately, I have no idea how absorptive the atmosphere would prove to a focused energy beam...but I think absorption would be minimized if the angle of incidence was perpendicular to the atmospheric "bubble."  The idea is to create a beam of energy at the site of power generation and transmit it to a satellite in orbit directly over the power plant.  This satellite would then transmit that power via a focused energy beam to another satellite, which would in turn re-transmit the power to the ground to a station located directly beneath it.  There are a LOT of factors I have not accounted for, so this is largely a pipe dream :)... but if it were workable, we could create a network of power generation sites around the globe that could supply the entire globe with power through a series of satellite relays.

If atmospheric absorption would be too intense due to the ablative nature of the many layers and currents in the atmosphere...I would suggest that a heigh adjustable float be anchored between each distinct layer directly above the energy beam's source.  These floats would be lensed conduits that would transfer the energy beam with minimal loss of energy or refraction.  Using a tube with several different lenses and gases could (I think) effectively re-focus and adapt the energy beam to the new gas layer, so its transmission from float to float occurred with minimal deviation. 

Idea 2:  Split Photon Battery Packs.

Hoookay, time for some pie in the sky.  Working with high level physics is something I only dream of, not something I'm qualified to do, so this is probably impossible.  However, it has been shown that a photon can be split into composite particles that retain the identity of the whole.  When power is increased on one half of the photon, the other half decreases in power (no matter the distance between particles) to maintain its equilibrium.  If this capacity were to be harnessed as a means of power transmission, it would mean building massive battery banks of suspended semi-photons that would alternatively be pumped full and drained of energy in a controlled manner.  The other half of the semi-photons would be located in an energy bank across the globe/solar system/galaxy and would fluctuate in opposite of its twin.  If energy could be fed into one half and bled off from the other half, no or low loss energy transmission across large distances would be possible. 

The unknowns:  How do you store semi-photons indefinitely?  How do you siphon off excess energy from semi-photons?  How much can you alter a photon before it collapses or loses its identity?  How much power would be lost during transfer, and how much power would be required to maintain the semi-photon stasis?

I have no idea how to solve the above problems, but I do believe that the idea has merit, and that if a self-identifying siamese twin particle can be sustained indefinitely then it would be ideal as an energy transmitter.

Eventually, all devices in the world could be powered directly from a power generation site via battery packs filled with suspended semi-photons that corresponded to those housed within the power generator. 

That's all I've got for now.  Flame on!