Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Solar power has begun to transform the world’s energy system

newyorker.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

391–400 of 607 posts

Re: Solar power has begun to transform the world’s energy system

#391

Post by gjm11 »

gjm11 wrote: post #4
peterpost2 wrote: post #2

Paywall

For what it's worth, it didn't throw one up for me. Anyway, for anyone wondering what's beyond the slightly clickbaity headline, it isn't about some astronomical phenomenon; the subheading reads "In the past two years, without much notice, solar power has begun to truly transform the world’s energy system." and the article is all about that.

In case anyone's wondering: the HN title has now been changed to be more informative than the original article title, which was something like "4.6 billion years on, the sun is having a moment".

Re: Solar power has begun to transform the world’s energy system

#392

Post by the_sleaze_ »

teitoklien wrote: post #350
jjulius wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>... miracles like... youtube... ... miracle ?

lol, you have no idea just how hard it is to make something as mammoth size financially viable or even sustainable as a business, due to sheer technological bottlenecks in video streaming, encoding/decoding videos at that scale, and everything else. It is a technological marvel, similar in comparison to designing and building an F-35 fighter jet or anything else. It requires custom Hardware Accelerators designed at a…

Beautifully put

Re: Solar power has begun to transform the world’s energy system

#393

Post by yndoendo »

amarait wrote: post #348
rel_ic wrote: post #347

Renewable energy is great, but we're not replacing fossil fuels with it, we're just adding more energy usage. And our energy usage is destroying the environment. Don't let these advancements in solar make you think things are getting better. We need to reduce fossil fuel usage, not just increase solar usage. https://pocketcasts.com/podcasts/b3b696c0-226d-0137-f265-1d2...

What replaces fossil fuels is some kind of breakthrough in batteries. At the moment its getting better every year were currently at less than $100 per KWh which is crazy but needs to be improved for allowing more off the grid energy consumption

Batteries are just one means to store renewable energy and mechanical storage is another. Re-designing the power grid to transfer peak to areas via HVDC is another, to spread into areas where the weather limits or constricts the renewables for that time of day or day itself.

"Taming the Sun" [0] goes into more details and talks about it better than I can.

People like to over simplifying complexity by reducing arguments to a single reasoning. It helps make everything seem more simple than it really is. It is a way to persuade people that lack understanding "all systems are complex". Even instructions on how to construct a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. How many years does it take of development before a child can actually preform that "simple" task?

[0] https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262537070/taming-the-sun/

Re: Solar power has begun to transform the world’s energy system

#394

Post by cogman10 »

carra wrote: post #376
amarait wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What replaces fossil fuels is some kind of breakthrough in batteries. At the moment its getting better every year were currently at less than $100 per KWh which is crazy but needs to be improved for allowing more off the grid energy consumption

We are also going to need a breakthrough in how batteries are produced and disposed of. Otherwise the environmental impact of the many millions of batteries themselves may prove unsustainable too.

Maybe better disposal practices. Regulations standardizing batteries would also do a lot of good.

But really, we simply need a lot of virgin batteries regardless because we don't have enough. Recycling and disposal will only really take off once the market is mostly saturated (which we don't appear to be anywhere near).

I'd also point out that modern LiPo batteries are 90% recyclable with no special techniques needed. That's because by weight, the batteries are mostly iron and nickel. Recycling them is really as simple as just melting them down. It only gets tricky if you want to collect the lithium, silicon, and other trace materials (and there are already recycling plants that are handling that).

Re: Solar power has begun to transform the world’s energy system

#395

Post by mcbrit »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #175

The article doesn't mention a technology that deserves some attention because it counters the biggest and most obvious deficiency in solar: the sun doesn't always shine. That technology is cables. Cables allow us to move energy over long distances. And with HVCD cables that can mean across continents, oceans, time zones, and climate regions. The nice things about cables is that they are currently being underutilized.…

How far do cables generally move power now in terms of hours, meaning time zone offset? This might seem like an odd formulation, but.

I /think/ formulating the problem this way means that 12h=power is always relevant. So: where are we?

Re: Solar power has begun to transform the world’s energy system

#396

Post by Workaccount2 »

DrBazza wrote: post #377
rel_ic wrote: post #347

Renewable energy is great, but we're not replacing fossil fuels with it, we're just adding more energy usage. And our energy usage is destroying the environment. Don't let these advancements in solar make you think things are getting better. We need to reduce fossil fuel usage, not just increase solar usage. https://pocketcasts.com/podcasts/b3b696c0-226d-0137-f265-1d2...

Can anyone point me a genuinely unbiased comparison of solar, wind, coal, oil, nuclear and hydro, in a reputable scientific journal that covers all of the 'criticisms' that are raised for some but not others? There's at least: - creation of infrastructure - maintenance of infrastructure - mining/acquiring fuel - waste fuel - retirement of infrastructure and then for each point: - something like cost per MWh, - human…

This is an active area that is exceedingly difficult if not outright impossible to do.

The nature of any project is inherently fractal, and trying to assign a impact to each part is all over the map, and anyone with any agenda or bias can move the 1000 little sliders enough that it adds up to what they ultimately want to see.

You get stuff like:

"Lets assume all the trucks are old and need to drive up hill to deliver the panels"

"Lets assume that the solar panels are installed in a place where it never is cloudy"

"Lets assume the coal plant only burns coal from this one deposit on earth that has the lowest NOx emissions"

"Lets assume the solar panel factory never bother putting panels on their roof, and instead run on coal"

Re: Solar power has begun to transform the world’s energy system

#397

Post by louwrentius »

hypfer wrote: post #282
louwrentius wrote: post #191

In Star Trek The Next Generation, energy is a 'solved problem'. Material needs are also a 'solved problem'. Money doesn't exist anymore. I think at least 70% of the Hacker News crowd would hate this world because they would have no idea what to do with their life under these circumstances. What is life about except turning a profit? How can you have power over other people? Feel important with all your money? Look at…

> I think at least 70% of the Hacker News crowd would hate this world because they would have no idea what to do with their life under these circumstances. > What is life about except turning a profit? How can you have power over other people? Feel important with all your money? Man, I feel you. HN as this small window into the soul of the silicon valley is best consumed only in very small doses. Thank you for your w…

Thank you

Re: Solar power has begun to transform the world’s energy system

#398

Post by hollerith »

mcbrit wrote: post #395
jillesvangurp wrote: post #175

The article doesn't mention a technology that deserves some attention because it counters the biggest and most obvious deficiency in solar: the sun doesn't always shine. That technology is cables. Cables allow us to move energy over long distances. And with HVCD cables that can mean across continents, oceans, time zones, and climate regions. The nice things about cables is that they are currently being underutilized.…

How far do cables generally move power now in terms of hours, meaning time zone offset? This might seem like an odd formulation, but. I /think/ formulating the problem this way means that 12h=power is always relevant. So: where are we?

Aside from your question (which I would rephrase as, How expensive is it to send electricity to a different time zone), another important question is, How expensive is it to ensure that the electricity continues to flow if our country's government angers some other country's government and that country has an effective military?

Re: Solar power has begun to transform the world’s energy system

#399

Post by qiqitori »

cogman10 wrote: post #388
1970-01-01 wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does not necessarily need to be a battery. Flywheels, heat, and even synthesis of fuels are also solutions to the problem.

If you look at the energy density, cost/kwh, and lifetime maintenance of most of those, you'll find that batteries handily win. Further, batteries have room for innovation and growth in all those categories. We won't, for example, make a more cost-efficient flywheel or heat storage. They are effectively as efficient as they'll ever be. IMO, it necessarily has to be batteries. The other alternatives are nowhere near a…

On the other hand, you need to buy a new set of batteries every 15 or so years. The other things you mentioned generally don't need regular replacement, and when they do, it's not the whole setup.

Re: Solar power has begun to transform the world’s energy system

#400

Post by heisgone »

triceratops wrote: post #383
fastball wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or we can go full nuclear.

Get private insurance to fully cover nuclear and I'm onboard.

This might be the only way I could have any trust in Nuclear. I heard recently from a journalist that the Fukushima plant paid Yakuza owned newspapers to avoid negative press well before the incident. The technology is great, humans are not.
Post reply on HN