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In Lebanon, solar power is booming

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Re: In Lebanon, solar power is booming

#71

Post by idoubtit »

tchaffee wrote: post #59

This is one of the less obvious reasons solar will dominate. No grid or government to rely on. Russian gas and foreign wars no longer matter. And as battery technology improves it will be 24x7 independence.

Solar and batteries are not a long term solution that will bring energy independence to everyone. It's not that simple.

In western countries, and especially in the USA, people mostly want to live in a private house, with two or more cars. If those vehicles are electric (and that's the future we're pointed to), I think solar panels would provide a tiny share of the electricity required for this way of life.

When living in a large city building, the energy required for each family is much smaller since cars are not needed and since heating etc is lower than in individual houses. In that case, solar panels are more useful, though not enough to be independent.

Re: In Lebanon, solar power is booming

#72

Post by shapefrog »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #53
8note wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the actual savings though? Vs alternatives like using a flash boiler, or convincing your government to reduce the water that the agriculture industry can use, or adding a timer on the shower?

Halved our water heating bill. I don't care about water usage, it's extremely cheap here and highly recyclable. That's why I framed my comment with the energy conservation context.

A shower heat recovery system would be better, which seems like such low hanging energy saving I am unsure why it isnt more of a thing.

Re: In Lebanon, solar power is booming

#73

Post by [deleted] »

darkwater wrote: post #66
archon1410 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Footnote 1 I have never heard that before, cities like Ranchi can hardly be described as "Tier 1". The HRA classification given on the Wikipedia page[1] is much better guide to what my intuitions are on what people mean by tier 1-3. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Indian_cit...

> [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Indian_cit ... Finally someone starting from the bottom of the latin alphabet to categorize something that can grow over time (i.e. Delhi becomes even bigger, much more bigger than other X cities, it will move to a W category). Yes, I'm looking at you, European energy classes system and yours A+++++++++ classes.

[deleted]

Re: In Lebanon, solar power is booming

#74

Post by oblio »

qikInNdOutReply wrote: post #62
rowtheway wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

South Africa’s infrastructure failures have little to do with privatization or “the West,” and far more to do with self-inflicted brain drain, a general lack of expertise and project management skills, theft, crime, and corruption: https://saice.org.za/downloads/SAICE-2022-Infrastructure-Rep...

Its not only south africa. Its england, its europe, the concept of failing state services via lobbyism, then privatization of basic services, seems to be part of the us colonial model. Cant argue with it being good for buisness, its just bad for the people living in such a society.

> Its not only south africa. Its england, its europe, the concept of failing state services via lobbyism, then privatization of basic services, seems to be part of the us colonial model.

> Cant argue with it being good for buisness, its just bad for the people living in such a society.

You've taken a sliver of truth and ran away with it into the abyss.

Re: In Lebanon, solar power is booming

#75

Post by oblio »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #28
anonu wrote: post #13

Basically, Lebanon had 30 years to figure out how to build basic infrastructure like a proper electrical grid and production (from 1990, the end of the civil war to present). Instead, crooks, thieves and fraudsters figured out how to bilk the nation of billions while leaving subpar services in their wake. My parents have had solar thermal collectors for hot water on their roof in Lebanon for 3 decades now... other th…

Are heat pumps common in Lebanon?

My guess? Not. They probably have AC, but heat pumps are expensive and the lower the income the less interest in the "environment" or "pollution". People just use whatever's cheapest upfront.

Re: In Lebanon, solar power is booming

#76

Post by belorn »

tchaffee wrote: post #59

This is one of the less obvious reasons solar will dominate. No grid or government to rely on. Russian gas and foreign wars no longer matter. And as battery technology improves it will be 24x7 independence.

Lebanon is located next middle east and north Africa. It has 10.72% arable land, water being a scarce resource, and dust storms being one of the natural hazards. The average number of days with rain for months between May and September is between 0 and 2. Solar is an obvious choice for that climate.

Re: In Lebanon, solar power is booming

#77

Post by zo1 »

nibbleshifter wrote: post #49
itsrajju wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the parent. It's likely a safety issue in the case of grid-connected solar installations. These panels are designed to send excess electricity to the grid, and if the grid is down, the utility needs to make sure that busted cables are not carrying electricity... for the safety of the repairmen. https://www.cnet.com/home/energy-and-utilities/do-blackouts-...

Preventing backfeeding during an outage isn't a hard problem, technically speaking...

It's a default feature in grid tied inverters from what I've been told.

Re: In Lebanon, solar power is booming

#78

Post by unmole »

redtriumph wrote: post #30

I hail from a Tier 3 city in India [a]. Due to mismgmt. or exorbitant electricity prices, several folks would end up stealing electricity from the main line. Electricity distribution companies would keep on increasing prices to make up for lost revenue from stealing. On other hand, stealing kept on increasing. In recent years, huge chunk of public have pivoted to installing solar panels for water heater etc. When I w…

> exorbitant electricity prices,

Yeah, no. There is no state in India that has exorbitant electricity prices for domestic consumers. Virtually every state discom sets the base tarrif below cost. People steal electricity because they can, not because they can't afford it.

Re: In Lebanon, solar power is booming

#79

Post by xiphias2 »

darkwater wrote: post #66
archon1410 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Footnote 1 I have never heard that before, cities like Ranchi can hardly be described as "Tier 1". The HRA classification given on the Wikipedia page[1] is much better guide to what my intuitions are on what people mean by tier 1-3. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Indian_cit...

> [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Indian_cit ... Finally someone starting from the bottom of the latin alphabet to categorize something that can grow over time (i.e. Delhi becomes even bigger, much more bigger than other X cities, it will move to a W category). Yes, I'm looking at you, European energy classes system and yours A+++++++++ classes.

If you look at the previous classification it was A/B/C as well, they had to learn it.

Re: In Lebanon, solar power is booming

#80

Post by contingencies »

wara23arish wrote: post #4

I’ve heard a few stories of panels not being installed properly and flying off roofs and hitting cars below. Unfortunately most lebanese live in apartments, and if a resident or two already called dibs on the roof, you’re out of luck. Tangent, price of fuel/diesel used to be fixed by gov subsidies. Most of our (very tiny) amount of money left has been smuggled across the border to Syria. Same applies to bread, flour…

I’ve heard a few stories of panels not being installed properly and flying off roofs and hitting cars below.

Wind loading is often very large. Structural engineers are aware of this, the general population isn't.

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