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    • Should power be limited to the sunlight incident on the CELSS footprint?

    Posted by Greg Vialle on Thu 17 of Jun, 2010 13:19 GMT-0000 United States
    It seems to me a good measure of the overall efficiency of the CELSS is how much power consumed per square meter of ground it takes up. For reference, the peak amount of insolation on Earth is around 500 W/m2 (this varies by as much as plus or minus 100W/m2 depending on latitude and Milankovic cycle).

    If the power used by the CELSS exceeds this amount then it can be argued that nature is more efficient than that CELSS design, and the CELSS is detracting from the Earth's biosphere.
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    Posted by admin on Thu 17 of Jun, 2010 13:25 GMT-0000
    >If the power used by the CELSS exceeds this amount then it can be argued that nature is more efficient than that CELSS design, and the CELSS is detracting from the Earth's biosphere.

    This depends on the biome. A CELSS located in the desert would not displace the same amount of autotrophic biomass as a CELSS located in the rainforest.
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    Posted by JQTaran on Sun 26 of Jun, 2011 14:29 GMT-0000
    yeah, chopping down an acre of rainforest just to stick up some solar panels for an underground celss doesn't seem like a fair trade.

    probably a good reason to build celss in deserts, plus less upkeep in continually chopping back vegetation to keep the panels clear.

    JQ
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