How the global village shrinks to a small valley

----- The story began 9 months ago, when I bought a "pedelec", which is a bicycle with an electric assistance motor that enables one to ride the bicycle a longer distance, and faster as long as the battery [lead-acid] supplies power. I was told that the battery could be recharged 100 times and still attain full power, and after that, the power will be less and less with each recharge. In fact, after only 40 times, the power supply was reduced to about 50%.

So I looked for another ways to increase the power supply. A lithium battery could provide my needs, but it is far too expensive for me.

When I purchased the pedelec, I was quite sure that within a year the efforts of engineers all over the world would yield a superior and less expensive fuel cell, but it seems they will need more time.

Then I thought to use a PV [photovoltaic] sheet that could charge the battery.

The PV sheet could cover an "ultra light" trailer that would be towed by the bicycle.

I then calculated the size PV sheet needed, and found that 5 square meters would be necessary, but that this would be too expensive as well as too cumbersome.

So a few days ago, as I biked, I continued to think about a solution; when suddenly I recalled that my mother's cousin, Yoel Dasche told me many years ago that he constructed a tiny Stirling motor. It received its energy from the sun's radiation concentrated by a spherical mirror that was originally a car's headlight reflector! So I concluded that a Stirling motor that gets its heat energy from the sun might be the solution. If the energy source is the sun's radiation, then for my 500w electric motor, I would need a trough shaped mirror that can provide 1000w per m² .Theoretically 1 1m² can supply 1000w , but because of poor efficiency (cloud cover or directional problems) there would be a need for a larger surface. This would mean more weight and more aerodynamic drag. Therefore the higher the Stirling engine's efficiency, the less sun collector area needed. So I started now to "Google" [English!] for information anywhere on the globe on Stirling engines, and suddenly I met a familiar name, Ricor, which is a plant for cryogenic devices in the nearby kibbutz "Ein Harod Ihud" just 12 km from my home, Nir David! Now, my neighbor, a young guy whose nick name is "Bison", just happens to work at Ricor. So I decided that after sitting so many hours in front of the computer its time for me to take a little bit hike in my neighbourhood., .

After only 10 minutes hiking , I noticed a car passing by with two guys inside, one of them was "Bison".

I yelled to him, they stopped the car, I asked him :Do you know what a Stirling engine is? Yes, he answered! That was enough for me to stop hiking, I got in the car and we started to chat. "Bison" told me that another guy from our kibbutz, Eran Gonen is also employed by Ricor, where he is researching for his doctorate on

sun powered Stirling engines!

Well now, I ask you, can we find a moral here in this story?

I'll leave the answer up to you.