This is great in theory, but if they cover all the canals it will significantly hamper Knightboat's effectiveness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoV1-fsFCmw
There's always a canal!
The ‘solar canals’ making smart use of India’s space
41–50 of 72 posts
Re: The ‘solar canals’ making smart use of India’s space
#42This is an awesome idea that I hope SRP adopts here in Phoenix. We have plenty of sun, and canals crisscross the whole valley.
Fun fact about those canals: many of them are close to 1,000 years old. The modern incarnation largely follows the old Hohokam canal system, though some of the newest, most expensive parts carefully deviate from it.
That's a fascinating observation.
I guess it makes sense, sort of like roads probably cross mountains where there used to be animal crossings, then human trails.
Re: The ‘solar canals’ making smart use of India’s space
#43> To maximise the absorption of energy, the solar panels should face south, but the canal’s direction cannot be dictated. Why does the panel have to be tilted forwards along the row? Can't it be tilted in any direction relative to the others?
That sounds like a useful optimization.
Maybe it's a practical necessity for a uniform support structure that faces either upstream or downstream.
It would be interesting to see the math - it might only buy a few percent at certain times of the day and be a wash when the sun is overhead. It might also depend on the demand curve.
Re: The ‘solar canals’ making smart use of India’s space
#44> To maximise the absorption of energy, the solar panels should face south, but the canal’s direction cannot be dictated. Why does the panel have to be tilted forwards along the row? Can't it be tilted in any direction relative to the others?
For every spot on earth there is an optimal angle of a solar panel / plane to capture the maximum amount of light (Even at any given moment in time). It is for this reason that panel for panel, the most efficient way of operating a given panel are with “duel-axis” trackers. [1]
In the absence of these, and factoring in the complications involved with an always operating mechanical component, you can have a “fixed axis” which is the theoretical best point for that place on earth. Most racking systems assume a rigid NxN rectangular grid, so having something that is commercially out there that follows the space exactly may be tough.
Re: The ‘solar canals’ making smart use of India’s space
#45> To maximise the absorption of energy, the solar panels should face south, but the canal’s direction cannot be dictated. Why does the panel have to be tilted forwards along the row? Can't it be tilted in any direction relative to the others?
For every spot on earth there is an optimal angle of a solar panel / plane to capture the maximum amount of light (Even at any given moment in time). It is for this reason that panel for panel, the most efficient way of operating a given panel are with “duel-axis” trackers. [1] In the absence of these, and factoring in the complications involved with an always operating mechanical component, you can have a “fixed axi…
Trackers are expensive and require maintenance. About 10 years ago The cost of the trackers exceeded the cost of land and panels almost everywhere, and so you Don’t see them anymore except in very unusual applications.
Re: The ‘solar canals’ making smart use of India’s space
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
According to Website Carbon Calculator, each page view produces 2.22g of CO₂. I think it would be lower if you use an ad blocker. https://www.websitecarbon.com/website/bbc-com-future-article...
I really have no idea how they're calculating that other than a lot of hand-wavy math. It will vary greatly depending where you are. If I'm in Vancouver and I access CDN or hosting resources from a massive datacenter located in WA or OR, it's highly likely that 98% of the energy for my home, and all of the telecom/ISP sites in between, and the datacenter itself are all hydroelectric powered.
Despite our government repeating it over and over, it turns out that Hydro is actually worse than all fossil fuels in terms of GHGs (over double coal) depending on what you flood. If it's forest, it's the worst. For the W.A.C Bennett dam in BC, 350,000 acres of former forest land was flooded.
Re: The ‘solar canals’ making smart use of India’s space
#47There was a proposal to do this to the California aqueduct, but it turns out they don’t lose much water from evaporation and it would be cheaper to put them on land. https://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/20/could-the-califor...
A quick google search found this PDF as my first result:
http://watermanagement.ucdavis.edu/files/4114/3891/2385/A01_...
According to that paper, 700 miles of canals lose 9300 acre feet of water per day. They say the price per acre feet (in 2015) was $107. Almost a million dollars per day is lost according to that paper. And California hasn't been cooling down since 2015.
It looks like the paper looked at one section of the canal and extrapolated the evaporation loss to the rest of the canal system in California.
*this paper seems to be from a class at the university. Just using it as an example that it might be more evaporation than stated above
Re: The ‘solar canals’ making smart use of India’s space
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really have no idea how they're calculating that other than a lot of hand-wavy math. It will vary greatly depending where you are. If I'm in Vancouver and I access CDN or hosting resources from a massive datacenter located in WA or OR, it's highly likely that 98% of the energy for my home, and all of the telecom/ISP sites in between, and the datacenter itself are all hydroelectric powered.
Despite our government repeating it over and over, it turns out that Hydro is actually worse than all fossil fuels in terms of GHGs (over double coal) depending on what you flood. If it's forest, it's the worst. For the W.A.C Bennett dam in BC, 350,000 acres of former forest land was flooded.
OK, but it's not being re-flooded constantly, it's already done and can't reasonably be undone.
So, long-term, it's a fantastic renewable resource with practically zero emissions.
Re: The ‘solar canals’ making smart use of India’s space
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really have no idea how they're calculating that other than a lot of hand-wavy math. It will vary greatly depending where you are. If I'm in Vancouver and I access CDN or hosting resources from a massive datacenter located in WA or OR, it's highly likely that 98% of the energy for my home, and all of the telecom/ISP sites in between, and the datacenter itself are all hydroelectric powered.
Despite our government repeating it over and over, it turns out that Hydro is actually worse than all fossil fuels in terms of GHGs (over double coal) depending on what you flood. If it's forest, it's the worst. For the W.A.C Bennett dam in BC, 350,000 acres of former forest land was flooded.
That would be a strong argument against new hydropower projects, but now that those dams are built, it seems like we have sunk costs (pun not intended) that would make it a bad choice to decommission, if we'd have to wait 100yr for the forests to begin to recover? That seems to jibe with critical studies I see [1].
1: http://blogs.edf.org/energyexchange/2019/11/15/long-consider...
Re: The ‘solar canals’ making smart use of India’s space
#50A much better example of multi-use space than solar roads.