221–230 of 256 posts
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It will probably be less worrysome than what we do today, covering a lot of the earth with animals that is horrible for the environment.
Humans are the only animals that seem to have a significant environmental impact.
India has made huge investments in Solar and is gradually paying off. 1.World's first solar power airport is in India http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/14/technology/india-cochin-sola... 2.Solar power from dams http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-11-10/news...
Wasn't there some WTO ruling against India just recently that will make solar more expensive there?
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The comparison is between the cost of new installations - coal power is very cheap because the facilities are old and the capital expenses were sunk a long time ago. New solar power is now cheaper to build out than new coal plants, which is reasonable enough given the cost of both raw materials and production processes for solar had plummeted over the last decade whereas coal is a very mature technology that is effec…
>The comparison is between the cost of new installations That may be, but that isn't what the headline says. It simply says that solar is cheaper than coal, which of course is not the case right now.
Seven Words Found Insufficient for Expressing Nuance
Headlines "Easy Targets" for Quibbling
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No. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11524691 Why does solar always need batteries? These are not "advances". India is adding 20k MW of solar and 10k MW of wind p.a. China is at 20+20. US at 20+20. Europe at 20+20. 30% of all new power capacity additions globally will be from renewables for the foreseeable future. Probably more. This is without "batteries". Without subsidies. The need for "baseload", "storage…
>The need for "baseload", "storage", or "the sun doesn't always shine and the wind doesn't always blow" are red herrings. They are not relevant. They aren't red herrings they are poor excuses when used as a reason to not to expand renewable but they aren't without their merit. We need to improve energy storage considerably to be able to push renewables to be actually a major part of the electric grid. A a major part…
Please help me the understand evidence that suggests we have somewhere on the periodic table to move to after Lithium batteries? (Lead Acid ----> NiCd ----> Lithium....now where do we go?)
How do we improve energy storage? Be very explicit about what data/evidence are driving your statements. Bold claims about energy storage increases are unusual given the energy realities of today.
How much natural gas peaking can solar/wind displace?
We must put carbon capture technology on all coal plants as the immediate high impact stop-gap solution to CO2 emissions. I think the only way this happens is regulatory.
The general utility verdict on solar/wind is that it's good for displacing natural gas peaking in a small way.
Aren't warm countries incredibly suitable for solar power? I assume most of the electricity is used during the day for things like electric motors during the work hours and air-conditioning. So they don't need to store that energy to keep homes warm during the colder night (even if residential AC is kept running during the night it will consume less energy since the temperatures will fall)
"Solar energy prices hit a new record low in January with the auction of 420 megawatts in Rajasthan at 4.34 rupees a kilowatt-hour. In comparison coal tariffs range between 3-5 rupees/kWh." So the headline here is, as is usually the case with articles in this space, misleading at best. It's slightly cheaper than the highest-end coal, but dramatically more expensive - nearly 1.5X more - than the lower end. Overall, it…
"Solar energy prices hit a new record low in January with the auction of 420 megawatts in Rajasthan at 4.34 rupees a kilowatt-hour. In comparison coal tariffs range between 3-5 rupees/kWh." So the headline here is, as is usually the case with articles in this space, misleading at best. It's slightly cheaper than the highest-end coal, but dramatically more expensive - nearly 1.5X more - than the lower end. Overall, it…
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Is solar viable for small installations without any subsidies ? I was recently looking at a 30KW proposal for a small enterprise in Tamil Nadu. The quoted price is Rs. 36 lakhs. At the rate of Rs 6.75 per unit, it doesn't even cover the interest costs. Does this match with your capex costs or is this way off ?
Even if you're not making profits (and so have no tax, and accelerated depreciation doesn't help you), commercial electricity rates in India are high, and you can expect break-even in about 3 years.
For residential consumers, break-even is 5-7 years, depending on which state you're in.
For your specific example, would need to know details to offer comments. At first glance, the quoted price seems way too high. Consider not installing batteries unless you absolutely must for your use-case.