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Solar power is now the cheapest form of energy in almost 60 countries

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Re: Solar power is now the cheapest form of energy in almost 60 countries

#31

Post by thetruepickle »

diafygi wrote: post #2

I work in solar, and here's my favorite climate change joke: "They say we won't act until it's too late... Luckily, it's too late!" Solar is no longer an experimental thing, and the industry is now focused on scaling. How can we deploy more solar faster? It's ridiculous how cheap panels have gotten, but a significant amount of the cost savings in the past few years is coming from soft cost (logistics, overhead, engin…

I'm a mechanical engineer who is looking to switch industries in the near term future. I have controls experience, as well as mechanical design, electrical, and system integration experience on side projects. What solar companies would you suggest? Where are they geographically located?

Re: Solar power is now the cheapest form of energy in almost 60 countries

#32

Post by protomyth »

diafygi wrote: post #2

I work in solar, and here's my favorite climate change joke: "They say we won't act until it's too late... Luckily, it's too late!" Solar is no longer an experimental thing, and the industry is now focused on scaling. How can we deploy more solar faster? It's ridiculous how cheap panels have gotten, but a significant amount of the cost savings in the past few years is coming from soft cost (logistics, overhead, engin…

I'm seeing a fair amount of people I talk to in North Dakota thinking of doing solar installs (personal windmills are a pain in the rear). I think our problem is that there is so much problematic information that we cannot get a straight answer. Its really sunny a lot of the winter[1], and seems like the price is getting right. Plus, getting the proper cutoff to go off grid would be welcome given the large number of power outages in the last couple of years.

There doesn't seem to be "that" brand in solar. Who should we look into?

1) a friend who ran a sunglass store in ND said most of his sales came in the winter because the bright sun bouncing light off the snow / ice makes driving a pain.

Re: Solar power is now the cheapest form of energy in almost 60 countries

#33

Post by thetruepickle »

oppositelock wrote: post #14
wott wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the goal of solar power is to be able to justify spending ever more MWh in air conditioning, I think there is nothing clean in it.

Why? Clean power is clean power, regardless of what it's used for. The alternative is to make electricity expensive enough that people ration its usage, which will make us regress economically since the economy is effectively driven by energy. Electric cars are well on their way to becoming mainstream, if that happens, A/C power usage will be insignificant compared to cars, whose charging loads dwarf residential A/C.

If you were to draw a box around a air conditioner and measure the neat heat input/output, you would measure a net heat output. An air condition is a net heating device due to inefficiencies. Even if the power source is clean, excessive air conditioner usage has long term effects of adding heat to the atmosphere. An air conditioner is only one example. How it stacks up against global warming, I don't know, but it is not something to neglect.

Re: Solar power is now the cheapest form of energy in almost 60 countries

#34

Post by fsloth »

niftich wrote: post #19
diafygi wrote: post #2

I work in solar, and here's my favorite climate change joke: "They say we won't act until it's too late... Luckily, it's too late!" Solar is no longer an experimental thing, and the industry is now focused on scaling. How can we deploy more solar faster? It's ridiculous how cheap panels have gotten, but a significant amount of the cost savings in the past few years is coming from soft cost (logistics, overhead, engin…

The PV panels are mostly a solved problem and firmly in the realm of physics, chemistry, and semiconductors. This field is dominated by research institutes like Fraunhofer ISE, and startups that spin off from its researchers, but to play in this field requires a very unique set of domain expertise. Methods like load management, demand response, and other ways of dealing with the mismatch between momentary generation…

"fruits of one's labor are subtle and not immediately observable by the general public"

For balance I suppose this characterization applies to most jobs.

Re: Solar power is now the cheapest form of energy in almost 60 countries

#35

Post by diafygi »

protomyth wrote: post #32
diafygi wrote: post #2

I work in solar, and here's my favorite climate change joke: "They say we won't act until it's too late... Luckily, it's too late!" Solar is no longer an experimental thing, and the industry is now focused on scaling. How can we deploy more solar faster? It's ridiculous how cheap panels have gotten, but a significant amount of the cost savings in the past few years is coming from soft cost (logistics, overhead, engin…

I'm seeing a fair amount of people I talk to in North Dakota thinking of doing solar installs (personal windmills are a pain in the rear). I think our problem is that there is so much problematic information that we cannot get a straight answer. Its really sunny a lot of the winter[1], and seems like the price is getting right. Plus, getting the proper cutoff to go off grid would be welcome given the large number of…

I'd recommend treating it as a normal HVAC or construction project. Call local contractors who have experience in the area and climate, get bids and recommendations, then choose a contractor. Most solar contractors either have financing options (like car dealerships) or can point you to one (like realtors). Also, try to find someone who has solar and talk to them. In smaller markets like this, local experience is important.

Re: Solar power is now the cheapest form of energy in almost 60 countries

#36

Post by protomyth »

diafygi wrote: post #35
protomyth wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm seeing a fair amount of people I talk to in North Dakota thinking of doing solar installs (personal windmills are a pain in the rear). I think our problem is that there is so much problematic information that we cannot get a straight answer. Its really sunny a lot of the winter[1], and seems like the price is getting right. Plus, getting the proper cutoff to go off grid would be welcome given the large number of…

I'd recommend treating it as a normal HVAC or construction project. Call local contractors who have experience in the area and climate, get bids and recommendations, then choose a contractor. Most solar contractors either have financing options (like car dealerships) or can point you to one (like realtors). Also, try to find someone who has solar and talk to them. In smaller markets like this, local experience is imp…

My problem is that we really don't have any local experienced outfits. Chicken and egg problem I'd imagine.

Re: Solar power is now the cheapest form of energy in almost 60 countries

#37

Post by cderwin »

diafygi wrote: post #15
jgh wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know next to nothing about Solar so pardon my ignorance, but what do you suppose the solar industry is looking for from the software industry?

Thanks for the comment! Gotcha, yes, it does take quite a bit of understanding of the dynamics and incentives of the industry to see how important software is to the industry. Here's a rundown of the problems that software can solve. Front End and User Experience: Customer acquisition costs in the U.S. for distributed solar is extremely high. Think of cleantech sales like the insurance industry 20 years ago. Most of…

> If there's anything we've learned on HN, IoT software is complete shit when it comes to security.

Yes, but I think most people here will till you it's not because of a lack of engineering talent. Rather security takes time and a lot of money (in particular security engineers) and IoT companies would rather do without for the most part. And even if you do pay the price it doesn't always work out. It's not an engineering or talent problem, it's a management and P/L problem.

Re: Solar power is now the cheapest form of energy in almost 60 countries

#38

Post by floatrock »

amelius wrote: post #18

Question: how many solar panels would you need to power a large steel producing company?

This is a distracting red herring argument and you know it.

Solar makes up less than 1% of the US energy supply. No one is saying we power our high-energy industrial consumers until we get up to say 50% renewable with all existing the low-hanging fruit out there.

Energy is not an all-or-nothing proposition. You can still use the energy-dense sources where they're the best tool for the job while still decreasing our existential risk elsewhere.

Re: Solar power is now the cheapest form of energy in almost 60 countries

#40

Post by lappa »

woodruffw wrote: post #26
waynenilsen wrote: post #10

* after subsidies

We also subsidize the coal and oil industries by not aggressively factoring the externalities they produce into their taxation.

      Energy Source		Subsidy per kwh	 Externalities per kwh

      Coal			$0.0006		~$0.02

      Natural Gas	        $0.0006		~$0.01

      Nuclear			$0.0031		(unspecified)

      Renewables		$0.0154		(unspecified)

            Biomass Power	$0.0020		(unspecified)

            Geothermal		$0.0125		(unspecified)

            Hydroelectric	$0.0008		(unspecified)

            Solar		$0.9680		(unspecified)

            Wind		$0.0525		(unspecified)
http://environmentblog.ncpa.org/which-energy-source-receives...
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