Dyson Sphere on Taldain's Sun?

[Trusk'our]

Based on the technological development that is going throughout the Cosmere, does it seem likely that the Taldainians will create a dyson sphere at some point, allowing them to get as much investiture as they want?

[Frustration]

You know I made an offhand comment about this last year, I think it's possible, and it would certainly help get Taldain into the spot it needs to be in for space age Cosmere.

[Pathfinder]

True it would increase output, but not sure it would be necessary. Basically Taldain has none of the problems regarding solar energy that we have. The sun is always in the sky, so no reduction of solar power at night. It doesn't move across the sky, so any solar panels (or investiture panels?) could be positioned optimally and left that way. No adjustments necessary. It is an arid climate, with water sourced in the ground so minimal to no rain (from my recollection), so no significant or continual cloud cover to block the sun. 

Edited December 29, 2021 by Pathfinder

[HSuperLee]

On 12/29/2021 at 5:44 PM, Pathfinder said:

True it would increase output, but not sure it would be necessary. Basically Taldain has none of the problems regarding solar energy that we have. The sun is always in the sky, so no reduction of solar power at night. It doesn't move across the sky, so any solar panels (or investiture panels?) could be positioned optimally and left that way. No adjustments necessary. It is an arid climate, with water sourced in the ground so minimal to no rain (from my recollection), so no significant or continual cloud cover to block the sun. 

However for our solar power the main benefit is the light generated by the sun. If Taldain eventually develops a way to collect investiture the main problem they'll run into is that ultimately the amount they get is a lot smaller than you'd expect, considering that it takes the sand several hours to "recharge" despite constant exposure, meanwhile, OB spoilers,

Spoiler

Just being in the presence of a stormlight illusion was enough to instantly recharge some sand near it.

If this is the case, the main advantage a dyson sphere or dyson ring would provide is a significant increase as to the amount of investiture able to be collected.

[Trusk'our]

42 minutes ago, HSuperLee said:

However for our solar power the main benefit is the light generated by the sun. If Taldain eventually develops a way to collect investiture the main problem they'll run into is that ultimately the amount they get is a lot smaller than you'd expect, considering that it takes the sand several hours to "recharge" despite constant exposure, meanwhile, OB spoilers,

  Hide contents

Just being in the presence of a stormlight illusion was enough to instantly recharge some sand near it.

If this is the case, the main advantage a dyson sphere or dyson ring would provide is a significant increase as to the amount of investiture able to be collected.

Plus, if the Taldain-ians (don't know what else to call them, unfortunately) want to some day travel between worlds and take that investiture with them, they'll need some way to carry a lot of investiture over a long distance. A dyson sphere could help them gather enough concentrated investiture that they'd actually have a significant amount to take with them on a space ship.

[Pathfinder]

So first and foremost, just want to say, I do agree it would increase efficiency. I stated as much in my initial post. I just didn't think it would be strictly necessary.

 

15 hours ago, HSuperLee said:

However for our solar power the main benefit is the light generated by the sun. If Taldain eventually develops a way to collect investiture the main problem they'll run into is that ultimately the amount they get is a lot smaller than you'd expect, considering that it takes the sand several hours to "recharge" despite constant exposure, meanwhile, OB spoilers,

  Reveal hidden contents

Just being in the presence of a stormlight illusion was enough to instantly recharge some sand near it.

If this is the case, the main advantage a dyson sphere or dyson ring would provide is a significant increase as to the amount of investiture able to be collected.

Although I agree it could be seen that way, I am not entirely sure the sand being charged is directly related to the amount of investiture. In WoB, we see him state that the sand responds so drastically to kinetic investiture, but not so much to passive. So theoretically you could have a ton of passive investiture, and the sand charge slowly, versus a brief and small amount of kinetic investiture, charge the sand immediately. Basically I am not sure the speed of the sand charging is directly related to the amount of investiture. I think the speed is related to the type. 

14 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

Plus, if the Taldain-ians (don't know what else to call them, unfortunately) want to some day travel between worlds and take that investiture with them, they'll need some way to carry a lot of investiture over a long distance. A dyson sphere could help them gather enough concentrated investiture that they'd actually have a significant amount to take with them on a space ship.

Carrying a lot of investiture over long distances would more be an issue of storage though, because once they leave the system, they would no longer have access to the sphere. I believe (and feel free to correct me if I am wrong) but the purpose of a Dyson Sphere is when a species reaches of point of technology where they need so much power to fuel it so as to require the direct power of a star. That without such a power source, the society would collapse upon itself. Now I believe there are "swarm" versions of Dyson's spheres, but I would be concerned that if a fully encapsulated Dyson Sphere was employed with Taldain, that would prevent investiture from reaching the planet for natural processes (ecology) and destroy the planet. 

 

All of this is not to say I think a Dyson Sphere for Taldain is implausible, or shouldn't be done. Just musing on the logistics. 

Edited January 6, 2022 by Pathfinder

[Anomander Rake]

On 12/29/2021 at 5:44 PM, Pathfinder said:

True it would increase output, but not sure it would be necessary. Basically Taldain has none of the problems regarding solar energy that we have. The sun is always in the sky, so no reduction of solar power at night. It doesn't move across the sky, so any solar panels (or investiture panels?) could be positioned optimally and left that way. No adjustments necessary. It is an arid climate, with water sourced in the ground so minimal to no rain (from my recollection), so no significant or continual cloud cover to block the sun. 

On 1/6/2022 at 10:30 AM, Pathfinder said:

So first and foremost, just want to say, I do agree it would increase efficiency. I stated as much in my initial post. I just didn't think it would be strictly necessary.

...

Now I believe there are "swarm" versions of Dyson's spheres, but I would be concerned that if a fully encapsulated Dyson Sphere was employed with Taldain, that would prevent investiture from reaching the planet for natural processes (ecology) and destroy the planet. 

All of this is not to say I think a Dyson Sphere for Taldain is implausible, or shouldn't be done. Just musing on the logistics. 

 

True Taldain doesn't have those problems, but those aren't really the main problems the concept was designed to improve upon - it was conceived because such a fractional amount of a stars light reaches its home planet, and to capture more of that energy.  12 more hours of the optimal angle of light per day will not make up for the great distance between the theoretical sphere and the solar panels.  So necessary?  Maybe still no haha, but likewise just musing and sharing my thoughts.

And iirc Dyson himself is on record saying that the eponymous sphere is nigh impossible, and that a ring / swarm / partial shell type deal would be infinitely easier and still generate enormous energy.  This could be a lot more reasonable as opposed to designing something that will inevitably produce a surplus of energy that goes to waste, though as investiture becomes more easily transportable, surplus energy/investiture could be pretty lucrative

[Ixthos]

I'm all for megastructures in the Cosmere, especially if they're investiture related. I like the idea of Taldain as a type of independent city-state planet against a backdrop of other worlds that are focused on expansion, and being centred on a massive enclosure of orbiting collector would certainly be appealing. I'm also with @Anomander Rake in that it should be a Dyson swarm due to the material and logistical issues with making a sphere.