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Sanyo Solar Ark and Giant LED Display 196

Posted by michael from the doubles-as-a-death-ray dept.
shokk writes "Those of us who have played with CrystalFontz and Matrix Orbital serial LCD displays for geeky messaging will get a kick out of the 77k+ LED Solar Ark by Sanyo (only 21k of which are using as red/green/blue combinations for the presentation display). Not only does this behemoth show off its fantastically huge array of solar panels generating 530,000kWh/year and its high efficiency white LED technology, but it also sports a non-chemical water purification system in a very Feng Shui way. Lighting to restrooms underneath is provided by fiber optic paths from the white LEDs in the giant display above." It's a small plant as power plants go (600 kilowatts, when many plants are hundreds or thousands of megawatts) but it was cheap to produce, aesthetically pleasing, and of course, non-polluting, so that Godzilla won't visit.
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Sanyo Solar Ark and Giant LED Display More

Sanyo Solar Ark and Giant LED Display

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  • CrystalFontz and Matrix Orbital serial LCD displays for geeky messaging, I thought this was just another small display, but it's something so completely different, that saying so is almost an understatement.
  • "Lighting to restrooms underneath is provided by fiber optic paths from the white LEDs in the giant display above."

    Hm. Sure would suck to try to pee when they use "fade to black" transitions....

  • Japanese may be down but they will be back (Score:4, Insightful)

    by asmithmd1 ( 239950 ) on Sunday June 02, 2002 @06:14PM (#3627892) Homepage Journal
    Their enconomy has been in the doldrums for 10 years but long term thinking and a relentless focus on the customer will bring them around. Check out this quote from the web page:
    All of the Solar Batteries used in the Solar Ark where collected from customers who had solar cell modules that did not meet standard output requirements discovered last year. The "Solar Ark" represents SANYO employee's commitment to not forget the lesson learned from the power deficient module incident that occurred last year. Furthermore the system will serve as a useful device to actively test the basic performance of the modules in order to regain customers confidence in using SANYO Solar Batteries.

    Compare that attitude with Firestone's policy of deny and cover-up when people's lives were at stake
    • They got bought up by Bridgestone some time ago.

    • Compare that attitude with Firestone's policy of deny and cover-up when people's lives were at stake

      So, is Firestone's Japanese parent [bridgestone.co.jp] focused on the customer?

    • Compare that attitude with Firestone's policy of deny and cover-up when people's lives were at stake

      Japaness business men seem to have more of these things called 'ethics'. Not sure why. I know they have alot more suicides from CEOs if the company stuffs up etc. As opposed to the take the money and run attitude that seems common in western countires.

    • There never was a problem with Firestone tires... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by tgd ( 2822 ) on Sunday June 02, 2002 @07:12PM (#3628070)
      That was over-hyped media BS, and absolutely nothing more. Anyone with any experience in automotive sports, in particular, can tell you what happens when you run a tire outside of its spec. They blow, often catastrophically.

      Ford was telling people to run the tires more than 25% below they're recommended inflation pressure because the proper safe pressure made the ride in these soccer-mom driven deathmobiles too harsh. If you look at how most street tires are manufactured, its very obvious that running at too low of a pressure will eventually cause a separation in the steel belts or braid in the tire, leading to weakening. It also puts too much strain on the sidewall, which weakens and eventually blows.

      But, you know what? Its not Ford's fault either. There is one reason, and one reason only why these people were injured or killed: driver incompetance. A well-trained driver who is actually save behind the wheel knows how to maintain proper air pressure, knows how to control a car when a tire has blown, and most importantly knows not to jerk the wheel when you have traction on only one side of the vehicle. Otherwise you roll over and die, especially in a top-heavy truck like an SUV.

      Hell, a number of published independant tests blew out the sidewalls on Ford SUV's and the cars stopped perfectly straight and in a controlled manner. An inexcusably poorly trained driver doing the exact wrong thing is the only thing that can lead to an accident in cases like that one. *Any* good driver knows that perfectly well. Its embarassing how easy it is for any idiot to get a license in the US, and people die because of it.

      They do NOT die because of a non-existant policy to cover up a problem in a product.
      • There are a lot of people on the road who shouldn't be. But you can't expect pilot-license-level expertise from your average motorist. I'd be happy if they would just: (a) not talk on phone & drive, (b) not drink and drive, and (c) fucking signal.

        Most drivers know about as much about their cars as they do about their computers: dick.

        You put gas in it. You change oil and check other fluids every 3,000 miles. You take it to a mechanic here and there to check things out when they seem weird. You inflate tyres to the pressure indicated in the owner's manual. You drive. Drivers don't really need to know all that much about their cars, just as Joe Sixpack doesn't need to know all that much about the inner workings of his PC to use it.

        However, it sure helps to have a clue about both.

        I'm a pretty good driver and take good care of my car. I've only had one accident - which was major - and two speeding tickets in over 16 years behind the wheel. I did have a tyre blow out at 100kph+ during rush-hour traffic. It was just an inconvenience. Don't panic, keep the car straight, slow down, pull over, and stop. It ain't rocket science.

      • Wasn't it also the case that the people who died weren't wearing seatbelts? I'm not 100% sure of that, but I recall hearing it, and that's the part that pisses me off the most about the whole situation... if you can't be bothered to wear a seatbelt, you've given up your right to sue in my mind.

      • *Any* good driver would also know that you can't stop an 18 wheeler on a dime without causing a jack-knife. However, the instinct to simply slam on the brakes as you would in a passenger vehicle is too great to be ignored, so most US jurisdictions require a special license to drive vehicles of that type.

        Perhaps another special class of driver's license should be required for SUVs, since driving techniques which lead to acceptable risk in ordinary passenger cars apparently lead to death in SUVs.

      • But, you know what? Its not Ford's fault either.
        Yes it is. You just explained why a paragraph ago: Ford was telling people to run the tires more than 25% below they're recommended inflation pressure

        The ONLY reason Ford was able to aviod this one was because of screwball federal legislation which shifts accountability away from the auto manufacturer when the issue of tires come up. If Ford sells a car with a defective headlight, or crank shaft, or cup holder or muffler or door handle, the liability is on Ford's shoulders. If the TIRES are defective, that liability reverts to the tire manufacturer.

        What happened with the Explorers and Firestone tires entered a convenient-for-Ford gray area because Ford could say "look, this law right here says the tire manufacturer is liable." It's utter bullshit, because Ford specifically requested tires from Firestone that were orignially inteded for Ranger pickups and were now running underinflated on heavier Explorers.

        The entire thing is all Ford's fault but their lawyers and lackeys in Congress were able to generate enough FUD that the whole thing became "murky."

        You're right, most drivers are total idiots. Most of 'em probably don't check their tire pressure anyway. That doesn't mean it's okay for Ford to not test their products before selling them.
    • There's no such thing as "solar batteries" in English. That's a direct translation of the Japanese term "taiyou denchi." "Taiyou"= sun and you guesed it, "denchi" = battery. Too bad Japanese companies and other organizations within Japan have trouble accepting their lack of English skills and neglect to at least hire out the translation work to natives. If you have been to Japan or had much experience with made-for Japan products/media(web included) and such then you know what I mean.
    • Cute.
      One blurb from the PR office regarding a PR stunt and you suggest the Japanese economy is coming back?
      Hey, I wish it was coming back. I moved to Asia ten years ago to take advantage of the booming economy and I really wish I could believe it was coming back, but I don't. Not at all. Not even close.
      The Economist ran a special issue a few months back in which they predicted the Yen will collapse to at least 150 and maybe even 200 to the dollar by 2004. That totally trashes Americans like myself living in Asia. I sure wish it was all going to suddenly get better, but that is pure fantasy. The problems are very deeply rooted in the banking structure and the culture. It's not going to change.
  • IANAEngineer, but how do you get around the arched design causing part of the solar cells to be shadowed during certain parts of the day? Or can you?

    Either way, it looks pretty cool, and what seems to be more interesting/potentially useful is the LED lighting and water filtration...can anyone provide some more info on how the chlorine-free filtration works?
  • Yea right.If this [asahi-net.or.jp] is aesthetically pleasing, then see the Solar Sail [solarsail.ch], that one I could actually think of planting in my garden.
    • Do you know if that solar sail would make a viable sail for a sailboat or beach-sailer? If so, that would be awesome!

      Just think: in tropical locales, people could sail all day when it's sunny and charge batteries. Then if/when the wind died down or they needed to motor, they could run the boat on an electric motor. As well, all of the appliances on the boat could be run off of the sails. This could mean the end of the diesel engines on todays sailboats (save for maybe a small back-up) and would make long-distance sailing trips much more feasable as one would no longer have to worry about fuel/energy supplies.
      • No. It just looks like sail, but it's rigid structure, and nothing like cloth.

        There was a story about sprayable solar collecting material "paint" some time ago, that would probably do the trick, when (if?) it will be working and cheap enough for commercial use.

  • Something I've been thinking about lately...

    When I was growing up (born in '64), superstition was still pretty widespread in mainstream society, such as rabbit's feet, black cat's crossing your path, "bread and butter", salt over the shoulder, knock on wood, etc. There were people who really took these things seriously: in fact, you might remember a twilight zone episode where some guy speaking about superstition matter-of-factly noted that many people believed in rabbit's feet (and then some guy piped up with "darn right" or something like that).

    It occurred to me that these sort of things are almost totally dead, most likely caused by the homogenization of society caused by television and mass media.

    Even astrology seems to have taken some big hits. I'm sure there are still some nutcases that follow it, but nothing like it once was.

    One superstition, however, seems to be actually gaining prominence: Feng Shui. There are people who actually take it seriously. My wife has a friend (who's Asian) whose mother actually made her not buy a particular condo she was looking at because some Feng Shui witch doctor didn't like it. I've even heard some stories about dot-com idiots in the Silicon Valley who felt the need to blow big $$$ on Feng Shui analyses of their office spaces.

    Not sure what the point of all this is, but I found it interesting.

    [of course, I'm leaving out religion from this discussion of superstition, but that's another subject entirely. :)]

    • I married a singaporean of chinese descent, and that is a major concern of her parents. She doesnt believe in it herself, but to reduce family tensions, she tends to follow it anyways. It doesnt bother me too much, but it does sometimes get annoying. Her culture has quite a superstition about talking about death as well, and while I got addicted to Six Feet Under, she had real troubles watching it, because of the ingrained belief structure that she had grown up with. She knows I think its a bunch of BS, and tends to agree with that, however it takes generations to get rid of that belief structure.
    • Ahh... but why is it that a good majority of the population seems to be superstitious about people who follow superstitions?

      Anyway... Just because your a compulsive paranoid doesn't mean that they're not after you.

      If enough people follow a given superstition, perhaps we need to question whats wrong with the ones who aren't following it?

      I think it's time for the long white huggy coat with long arms that wrap around the back.
    • You may not like the spiritual packaging, but even for people with a more pragmatic attitude Feng Shui can provide some subtle insights into arranging your TV and couch for optimal slacking comfort.
    • One superstition, however, seems to be actually gaining prominence: Feng Shui

      Many of the things that you mention, like the rabbits foot, or knocking on wood, are just a superstition. They don't have any practical use in real life.

      Feng Shui is largely a superstition, but it also has a great practical aspect to it: It is also a great decoration & design strategy.

      Houses that follow Feng Shui can look nice, clean and organized: not because of the spiritual aspects, but rather because Feng Shui helps you to reduce the clutter, keep things clean, and to find a place to put the flowerpot and hang the mirror.

      And really, these houses would probably look nice if they followed any design strategy, but Feng Shui just happens to be the buzzword of the decade...
    • My sister works in a real estate office and she says that every once in a while, nutjobs will come in asking to look at a property with all sorts of weird requirements.

      Some of these include not having particular numbers in the address (bad luck I guess) and not having the bedroom door opening in the same direction as the front door or else your energy flows out of the house while you are sleeping?

      It always makes me laugh when I hear these stories from her.
      • not having the bedroom door opening in the same direction as the front door or else your energy flows out of the house while you are sleeping?

        If you had a leaky house, this strategy might reduce drafts in the winter time, as the wall would provide somewhat of a baffle to the convection current.

        Of course, Owens Corning sort of obsoleted Feng Shui.
    • It's like most Chinese folk science; the rationalizations are borderline insane, but they are based on a wealth of empirical evidence.

      Case in point, new building sites are inspected and all kinds of crazy nonsense is done to select sites, but quite surprisingly they knew not to build on formations that us westerners commonly build on that just happen to leak radon gas.

      As with acupuncture, explaination loco, results unquestionable.

      • Case in point, new building sites are inspected and all kinds of crazy nonsense is done to select sites, but quite surprisingly they knew not to build on formations that us westerners commonly build on that just happen to leak radon gas.

        I don't know; if you have enough rules, you're certainly going to coincidently eliminate some source of problem. That's like having a rule that "it's bad luck to walk under a ladder", and then crediting good luck when paint never falls on your head. Or a rule that a broken mirror creates bad luck, and then crediting the gods when you never get cut by broken glass.

        If they happen to have a rule that building on scaly ground allows evil spirits to rise up and haunt you doesn't mean that they knew radon gas might also leak out of scaly ground (or whatever).

        • If they happen to have a rule that building on scaly ground allows evil spirits to rise up and haunt you doesn't mean that they knew radon gas might also leak out of scaly ground (or whatever).

          I think the point was they _didn't_ know. The theory proposed was that the Chinese have about 3000 years of experimental evidence about what works and what doesn't. Instead of using it to develop a consitent science, they just overlayed some superstition to explain the results.

          Of course claims like avoiding radon gas should be looked at a little more closely. Given the life expectancy of medieval peasants i doubt the presence or lack of radon caused a statistically noticeable difference that would result in such spots being avoided. But i could be wrong.

          This would be similar to the Biblical strictures against pork and such. Yahweh doesn't want us to eat pork. How can you tell? Cause sometimes after eating pork you get sick and die. Doesn't mean they knew about the parasites in pork.

      • As with acupuncture, explaination loco, results unquestionable.

        X-rays: explanation loco, results unquestionable (pictures of internal structures of a human body! damn!). Oh shit, I'm ~107 years too late for anyone to take that statement seriously... (first paper on x-rays was published in 1895)
    • Ever try to get a muslim to eat pork? Man is that a deeply ingrained superstition, shared by about a billion people. My wife, who hasn't been to a mosque for 20+ years still gets weird about eating any kind of pork. She loves lobster, even though lobster meat is not more halal than pork.
      • I am not a muslim, but the reason muslims don't eat pork is because the pig is considered a dirty animal. If you've been to one of the third-world countries, you would've seen pigs wallowing in sewers, and that is probably where it comes from.
        Speaking of not eating pork: can you tell me why people in the Western culture don't eat dog meat? Would you call that superstition too?

        • Speaking of not eating pork: can you tell me why people in the Western culture don't eat dog meat? Would you call that superstition too?

          Actually, there is a logical reason: It's because dogs are a domesticated animal, created by humans. Same for cats. They've been bred for thousands of years to provide companionship, emotional attachment, and last but not least, partnership in work. Therefore they don't tend to be seen as animals for food.

          It's only in very poor countries where meat is scarce and companion animals are a luxury that you tend to get dog meat as food. Even then, many cultures won't eat them if they are working breeds and provide a useful service.

        • Can anyone quote what Chris Rock said about eating pigs? No refrigeration 2000 years ago... He may have been talking about the jews, but whatever, applicable here. You eat bad pork, it kills you, end of story. Reason enough to put strictures against it's consumption. Yes pigs will wallow in shit, certainly if it's hot, it's mud to them, they can cool off in it. If I had a lifeform that could consume feces and process it into something humans could eat I'd try and bring it to market. Oh wait, fast food already did that with worms and "other protein sources", or maybe that's just another superstition, an urban myth if you will. maybe. It is why some people won't eat fast food. They think they are indirectly eating feces. Same kind of thing. Perhaps many superstitions have a valid basis in reality? Perhaps. In this crowd I'd guess some people are thinking of Stephenson's "Snow Crash" and the part about enki and the memes. Boil'em the milk'em for pasturization. Simple but powerful, not much gets lost in translation. Your "superstition" might even last for a few thousand years.

          Pigs are filthy! THEY WALLOW IN SHIT! Good enough to keep people from eating them.
    • I think of Feng Shui as nothing more than how to make things more appealing in a minimalistic and organised way. Take the whole "flow of the room" concept. Obviously people are going to find your room unappealing if they are constantly tripping on a tipped-over coat rack and having to wade through a sea of clothes because there are no closets or dressers in your home. On the other hand, organizing it in such a fashion would make it really appealing. I feel that somewhere along the way this was once a "human interface for a house" type of rules that was made into "superstition" to make it easier for the common folk to accept as a set of rules. Somewhere in it there is a kernel of truth that isn't a bad idea to check out.
    • One superstition, however, seems to be actually gaining prominence: Feng Shui. There are people who actually take it seriously. My wife has a friend (who's Asian) whose mother actually made her not buy a particular condo she was looking at because some Feng Shui witch doctor didn't like it. I've even heard some stories about dot-com idiots in the Silicon Valley who felt the need to blow big $$$ on Feng Shui analyses of their office spaces.

      Not sure what the point of all this is, but I found it interesting.

      Well feng shui does have practical benefits as others have commented. If you follow it your (house/apartment/office/whatever) will be more ordered and attractive than if you just tossed stuff around wherever.

      Presumably underlying all the superstition is some experimentally developed human psychology. People who have messy cluttered stores don't get as much buisness as people with clean well organized stores. The fact that feng shui experts tell their customers that the store should be well organized by having a particular kind of pot in a certain corner may or may not be relevant. It might just be the fact that it forces cleanliness and organization, or perhaps it's been refined enough over 3000 years that they've found that people havea preference for a pot in the left corner of them room rather than the right.

      Regardless of the exactness of the details, and the (in my opinion) irrelevancy of the mystical component, overall following feng shui probably gave you some increased chance of success in life compared to those who didn't bother.

      Now days you could probably get just as good results with a good interior decorator, but that doesn't mean that feng shui won't still do the job. Of course the positive psychological feedback from having consulted a feng shui expert (for those who believe in it at least) probably helps too.

    • One superstition, however, seems to be actually gaining prominence: Feng Shui. There are people who actually take it seriously.

      Well, the difference between feng shui and some of the other superstitions you mentioned is that some feng shui is actually real, meaning that it works. The real problem is that some people have taken what used to be a highly local practice and over generalized it.

      For some very simple examples:

      - You don't situate a house on a "dragon's tail" because the dragon will become angry or stir in his sleep. A dragon's tail in this context means a certain shape of hill; this obviously comes from earthquake country.

      - In Hong Kong, face your windows to the south east. This is probably because if you face east, you avoid the afternoon sun so your home will be cooler when you get back home after work. If you face south, you can catch the breeze off the ocean, again cooling you down. You don't want to face north because the winter wind will make your (unheated) home too cold in the winter. This probably dates from times when whites lived on Hong Kong Island and chinese lived in Kowloon.

      - There is some rule about not living in a certain kind of valley; unfortunately I've forgotten exactly what it said. The point of it was to avoid swamps that lay in the bottom of valleys because they were mosquito breeding grounds.

      Just because a bunch of con men have taken over the name, doesn't mean that all of feng shui is bogus...
    • The last place I worked Feng Shuied up the place, painting doors, hanging things in the rafters, a two ton "water feature" at the fron door. Mirrors, Flutes hung in front of windows.
      The CFO was at the root.

      Anyway less than 2 yr after all that was done the
      company is out of business...

      go figgure.
    • You miss the point. It is not all about superstition, it is all about nice living spaces. If you visit a room "before" and then again "after" you will often find that there is a huge difference in simple livability.

      Interior designers and architects do largely the same thing, but often to more western tastes. Their terms are artistic, rather than spiritual, but the effect is the same. Any deliberately designed space, done by someone who makes a living designing spaces, will be much more liveable and workable than a space haphazardly thrown together in the course of use.

    • Feng Shui is not superstition. That's the difference.

      eg: don't sleep with your head under a window. Why? When it rains, your head'll get wet.

      eg: don't sleep facing a mirror.
      Why? you'll scare the shit outta yourself if u get up at night.

      It's all logic. Of course, over the years some reasoning has been lost and some of it is now crap. Just means you gotta be careful which 'expert' you choose.
  • If this story was only posted four months earlier CmdrTaco could have been even more 'romantic' and asked Kathleen to marry him via LED. It's almost as nostalgic as those blinking office lights in Germany [blinkenlights.de].
  • If you read on the solar lab front page, it says "let's think with us..." In that vein, I would like to offer a link...

    engrish [engrish.com]

  • It sounds great, and looks really snazzy but doing the math I am less and less confident in the potential of PV cells:

    Max. power output: 630kW

    Hours in a year: 8760

    • So, given that hours==time and year==time, and "hours"="years"/8760 we have that

      530,000kWh/year = 60kW.

      So enough to power 1000 light bulbs. Or 20 3-bar electric fires. Not bad :)

  • So, what is it? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by baudbarf ( 451398 ) on Sunday June 02, 2002 @07:20PM (#3628093) Homepage
    As usual, the corporate website reveals little about its function, purpose, or use. It shows lots of pictures and a pretty little flash movie with writing all in japanese.

    From the writing in the Slashdot article, I've gathered the following:

    It has solar panels.
    It has an LED display.
    It has bathrooms "under" it.

    So based on this information, the "ark" is a solar-powered advertising sign with bathrooms under it which are lit by LEDs. Are the bathrooms underground? Are they porta-potties? Why were bathrooms part of the design when they seem rather unrelated to the concept of advertising? Is the "ark" a prototype for a whole bunch of "arks" which are to be produced and distributed for home use? Or for commercial use? Or are they too huge/expensive for more than a few organizations in the world to use? OR, is it a one-of-a-kind tourist destination somewhere in Tokyo? Will it fit on your computer desk, or is it the size of a couple football fields? (I got a small incling of scale in the flash animation, because little flowers were growing on the ground below the picture of the ark, but you never know)

    Is this another example of the increasingly-common marketing mimimalism that companies like to use to infuse an annoying hybrid emotion (composited from annoyance and curiosity) into their victims in order to spur them to voraciously seek out all information available on the product just to find out what it IS?

    Or was there some hidden screen on the website somwhere that said, in plain english, "The Ark is a ______, built for ______, it will probably be used for the purpose of __________ by _______ or _________."?
    • "It's a giant LED made up of 3 lights that sits on top of the bathroom, and somehow has solar power that lights up the bathroom."

      This is my girlfriend's interpretation of the article - if she's right, then the Japanese are wasting their technological brilliance. If she's wrong, then it's a good example of how lacking of fundamental data that the original article was.
    • A construction plan in April, 2000 was announced as an office foundation the 50th anniversary commemoration business, and completed on April 1, 2002. The collection panels of the low output panel illegal sales case disclosed in October, 2000 are being handled. SOLARARK of the grand scale can be seen from the car window of the Tokaido Shinkansen. The enthusiasm of the company which says that it wants to raise interest in the PV plant appears.

      Obviously :)

    • Re:So, what is it? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 02, 2002 @08:28PM (#3628303)
      It's an extremely elegant hack.

      A photovoltaic collector provides the power to run a system of lights and a water purification system. The lights and water purification system are brought back together to provide a set of clean roadside restrooms. Some of the company's ongoing research (which is normally nothing but a revenue drain until productization occurs) is demonstrated to the public at large in a way that clearly benefits the company.

      It is a brilliant, practical, impressive, and functional billboard that meets the needs of travellers, serves the purposes of corporate PR, and extracts the best possible value out of a huge pile of returned surplus PV cells that were returned to them because they didn't put out the advertised power.

      Talk about making lemonade outta lemons.
    • Well, if you'd dig a little deeper on their site you'd find this:

      "Purpose of Establishment Solar Lab will conduct various activities to realize a clean energy society. Its focus is to present exhibitions to create an interest in global environmental issues and photovoltaic science among the younger generation which will lead in the future. We hope this museum becomes a "Place promoting Life" where new activities will be created through visitors, staff, business enterprises, and regional communities thinking about and discovering the relationship among the "Sun," "global environmental issues," "photovoltaics science," and "human beings.""

      They also have the dimensions listed. Now the thing I would like to know is the actual cost of construction. $5; $500,000; $500,000,000? Who knows?
  • ...what in the hell is it for? That is a *hell* of a lot of solar panel...it can't be just for powering the spartan display I see in those pictures.

  • Incomprehensible (Score:3, Insightful)

    by bperkins ( 12056 ) on Sunday June 02, 2002 @07:47PM (#3628177) Homepage Journal
    I spent a good minute reading this story before I had any idea of what they were talking about.

    Could he have at least said 77kw+? Solar Ark isn't very discriptive.

    The use of the term "Feng Shui" is not necessary, and prettry much improper in this context.

    Sheesh. Can't we do better than this?
    • I know, wtf? The post is very misleading. "Those of us who have played with CrystalFontz and Matrix Orbital serial LCD displays for geeky messaging " "only 21k of which are using as red/green/blue combinations for the presentation display" WTF? I thought this was a post about some new LCD technology. Christ.

      How about this: "Sanyo builds new clean power plant."
  • All I know is that thing goes by realllllly fast when you are on the Nozomi Shinkansen (their fastest bullet train).
  • 77k High Intensity LEDs, eh?

    Well considering that a high intinsity LED probably costs about 30-50 cents a piece in bulk... and then the time to wire them up..

    And solar panels are about 50 cents a watt, maybe a little less in bulk.

    I don't see how this thing cost less than several million dollars.
  • Lighting to restrooms underneath is provided by fiber optic paths from the white LEDs in the giant display above.
    That's not what I read. My understanding is that the light is natural sunlight, collected by a device that follows the course of the sun by using a motor powered by its own PV cell. Where did you get the above quote? Did you just decide to make it up?
  • Well, there are problems with solar energy and producing solar PV cells but I still think the thing is just damn cool! LEDs, fiberoptic cable, a nifty architecture, at least it shows (possibly) that someone is thinking beyond coal and oil. Don't go thinking that hydro is the answer either since that seriously messes with ecosystems. Maybe those organic solar projects we read about here a few months back. Hmmm.... Hell, I'll take a few windmills right about now. Anything to stick it to the fatcats still in the energy business having a suckfest with the US government.

  • Non polluting? Ahem... (Score:4, Informative)

    by SysKoll ( 48967 ) on Monday June 03, 2002 @12:45AM (#3629159)
    Guys, last time I was in a bunny suit (aka clean room jump suit), I was within spitting distance of a lot of extremely nasty chemicals. Sulfuric acid, heavy metals, arsenic, to name only a few.

    This web site does not describe the process they used to fabricate the solar cells. If they use the same old cheap process as usual, their cells slowly release arsenic in the environment. In 10 to 15 years, the cells will be too porous to be useful and so worn out they'll have to be scrapped.

    Which of course will release all the arsenic still trapped in them.

    I really don't know what's this legend about the semicon industry not polluting. Between the huge water use and the nasty chemicals, any semicon plant is a drain on resources. And solar cells release contaminants, so it's not an environmentally acceptable power source either.

    Between a nuclear plant and a field of solar cells of the equivalent power, the latter would be by far the worst source of pollution.

    -- SysKoll
  • it also sports a non-chemical water purification system in a very Feng Shui way

    Read this [193.51.164.11] and tell me that hypochlorous acid isn't a chemical.

    Hmm. The description on the Sanyo web site sounds pretty close to swimming pool chlorine generators. They essentailly use electricity to genreate chlorine from good old NaCl.

    This system keeps water clean by hypochlorous acid generated through water electrolyzation and also prevents the generation of Legionella bacteria which is harmful to the human body, especially the lungs.M


    I think using chlorine to purify the water is a good thing. That waterfall wouldn't be nearly as attractive if it was flowing with raw sewage.

  • 530,000kWh/year ... 600 kilowatts


    Well... there's about 530,000 minutes in a year, thus, it produces 1 kWh/minute, or 60 kWh/h... which equals 60 kilowatts. So, it's not a small power plant -- it's a tiny power plant.



    Little extra zeros tend to change the value of the number :-)

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