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6. Why Did I Write and Post All of This, Here on ExPo?
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Now that the shear size and amount of what I've posted has become apparent, no doubt there will be some of you who will be wondering about my motivation.
Put simply, I haven't seen anyone else anywhere on the web “think through” the real-world design limits of a massively solar expedition vehicle. Perhaps books exist that explore the subject, but somehow I doubt it. As seen above, 3 KW solar arrays are still very uncommon, let alone the 5 KW roof array + 2.5 KW awning array envisioned by the TerraLiner. And perhaps as much as 12 KW. As near as I can tell, such a design has not yet been imagined travelling the globe, and so nobody has yet thought through what the structural specifications of its awnings should reasonably be, to take maximum advantage of solar when the
DNI is high.
So too, even though Blissmobil specifies roof-top rainwater collection, and in concert with a water maker, promises more water available than an overlander will ever need, and an end to water-rationing, I wonder whether Blissmobil has actually thought through where and when roof-top rainwater collection will actually work. I wonder whether they've thought through how roof-top rainwater collection would function in real-world conditions, especially in hydrologically extreme climates like India's, which goes from parched, rainless desert from one month, to soaking-wet rainforest the next.
The Bissmobil system is a
potentially attractive way to provision water in India, because India is the last place on earth one would want to pull water from the ground. India is the "open defecation" capital of the world, and if there are Hindus up high in the mountains, then you can be rest assured that the groundwater in the mountains will be contaminated by fecal matter as well. Same goes for Nepal: Nepal is predominantly Hindu, with only a tiny minority of Buddhists living near the border close to Tibet, e.g. the "Sherpa" ethnic group that lives near Everest. So it's safe to assume that everywhere that's Hindu in Nepal, the groundwater will not be safe to drink, and a filtering system would need to be good enough to filter out not just large bacteria, but also much smaller viral pathogens. The Blissmobil rooft-top rainwater collection system promises potential freedom from such worries. But as we saw in posts xxx to xxx, when we examine the actual climatological facts of India, the Blissmobil system will only "work" if one carefully itinerizes one's route through India with maintaining water-autonomy as a constant objective.
There's a lot going on these posts, as hydrology and climatology intersect with rooftop and awning design, and both intersect solar technology. So I figured the best thing I could do is throw this stuff up on this thread, and if someone has the time and interest to read it all, I might stand to benefit from their novel insights.
And who knows: perhaps someone with exceptional computer skills might find the time to synthesize global maps of rainfall, relative humidity, windspeed, temperature, and DNI, on a month-by-month basis worldwide, creating a big database of animated GIFs that can be zoomed for good detail, with the ability to "layer" types of data (e.g. temperature + rainfall). Here I am thinking of a database of animated of GIFs that would show where and when rainfall or relative humidity are excellent; and so too (and not necessarily conversely), were and when
DNI is excellent. All of the information would be fairly fine-grained and monthly, not merely national and annual. It would be animated, multi-layered, and geographically specific information of the kind we saw on "Climatemps.com" -- see
http://www.climatemps.com/countries-a.php :
Instead of laying out an entire year in chart format for just one location, as per these still images, it graph information geographically, on a map, and the animated nature of the map would cover 12 months and all seasons. For the TerraLiner to plan its trips and function well on a global scale, exactly this kind of animated synthesis of information would prove indispensible. Trip-planning could take all factors into account so as to maximize time spent in high
DNI areas during the appropriate seasons. But simultaneously, also so as to maximize water production via rooftop rainwater collection, and/or one or two AWGs. And in addition, so as to maximize surf-potential, by chasing surf seasons, and possibly, storms.
Again, the diesel generator would still be necessary because crossing Siberia is best done in winter, and there's probably no season when the
DNI is good on the coast plain of Columbia, or the coast of the Congo, or central China, or northern Vietnam. But elsewhere, such a database of animated GIFs would help immensely with the route-planning of a solar-assisted vehicle with huge awnings like the TerraLiner.
Perhaps such a weather program with world-wide coverage already exists? I would be very surprised if it did not. If anyone reading this knows of such a program, please post!!!
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