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Solar is winning the energy race

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Re: Solar is winning the energy race

#41

Post by don_esteban »

Moldoteck wrote: post #12
tiku wrote: post #8

[flagged]

it's winning regardless - every kwh of solar is a kwh less of fossils. You can achieve even deeper decarbonization with nuclear but the perfect shouldnt be the enemy of good. There are countries where nuclear is politically hard and changing ppl's opinions is hard too. So it's either ren+ some fossil firming or just fossils

Another advantage of solar that it is decentralized and difficult/too costly to shut off by a country bombing you (Ukraine benefits from this) (unlike a big centralized power plant).

I think the biggest potential is in the 3rd world countries for which hydrocarbon import is a big drain on their convertible monetary reserves (especially now with the rising oil prices).

A farmer with enough free land and significant diesel bills for his farm machinery would also benefit from having his own solar farm and electric machinery.

Two future developments might be especially useful: 1) extremely cheap (sodium?) batteries (not necessarily ultra compact/light per kwh, just cheap). Moving in that direction but significant price reduction is still needed.

2) an ultra-cheap PV foil you can just roll out and not care too much about the longevity (not sure how feasible, but would be awesome and really handy in many situations)

Re: Solar is winning the energy race

#42

Post by b00ty4breakfast »

tiku wrote: post #8

[flagged]

We've already got pumped-hydro storage infrastructure and battery tech, while certainly not as far along as the boosters circa the middle of the last decade promised us, is at a point where it's viable as one part of the puzzle.

Speaking of the larger picture, this is to say nothing of all the other renewable options out there that continue to work when the sun goes down.

EDIT: And it doesn't speak at all to the other "alternative" energy storage options like thermal storage

Re: Solar is winning the energy race

#43

Post by szundi »

defrost wrote: post #36
kwakubiney wrote: post #31

Might be a noob question, but why can't EVs have solar panels on them directly so they can get charged just by moving around? Or why can't we have SVs(Solar Vehicles)? Why do we have to use solar panels on EV stations rather than just having them on the vehicles themselves?

You absolutely can .. but in order to be self sustaining vehicles need to look somewhat like the builds that appear in Australian multi day solar races - ultra lightweight, extreme streamlining, zero driver comfort, no extras like cargo space and automatic rear doors, etc. Maybe in time efficiencies will get there. * https://worldsolarchallenge.org/ * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K0FD9Hh6XY * https://www.youtube.…

[dead]

Re: Solar is winning the energy race

#44

Post by healthy_throw »

mixermachine wrote: post #22
foragerdev wrote: post #10

Solar is not less than revolution in Pakistan. Almost every home and factory has solar installed on their roofs. More affluent houses have almost gone off grid; others are selling back to grid and others who can't afford has their own small scale 12V solar panels to run fans in the scorching summer of Pakistan to save electricity bills. It is all done by people independently without much support from the government a…

Especially for hot and sunny areas solar is insane. At mid day, max heat, you get the peak production and can run your AC at full throttle. That enables you to efficiently work at nice temperatures.

Heat reduces solar production, ideally you have very sunny environment with about 25C / 77F.

Re: Solar is winning the energy race

#45

Post by thinkcontext »

kwakubiney wrote: post #31

Might be a noob question, but why can't EVs have solar panels on them directly so they can get charged just by moving around? Or why can't we have SVs(Solar Vehicles)? Why do we have to use solar panels on EV stations rather than just having them on the vehicles themselves?

The amount of power that can be generated from the surface area of a car is pretty small compared to how much a car consumes. And the cost hasn't been low enough compared to the value of the electricity it could produce.

Maybe someday the price will get so low it will be a no-brainer.

Re: Solar is winning the energy race

#46

Post by Moldoteck »

kwakubiney wrote: post #31

Might be a noob question, but why can't EVs have solar panels on them directly so they can get charged just by moving around? Or why can't we have SVs(Solar Vehicles)? Why do we have to use solar panels on EV stations rather than just having them on the vehicles themselves?

you get too little energy vs the cost of integrating it. It gets worse considering as a driver you want to park your car in shade/garage/multistory parkings

Re: Solar is winning the energy race

#47

Post by pydry »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #14
defrost wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the article: Researchers at the Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology in Finland have worked out what a globally cost-effective energy supply could look like. Based on their model, 76% of the world's energy would come from solar. Wind power would make up an additional 20%, with the rest coming from hydro, biomass and geothermal energy.

Yes, that does not really answer my question, though. A global average is somewhat interesting but with solar the situation is bound to vary widly by location. Also, does 'solar' then include battery storage?

Areas where solar is much less productive (e.g. Norway, Canada) tend to have lower population density, more abundant hydropower potential (which also means storage capacity) and more wind potential.

So, the ratio of solar, wind and hydro would be different under a 100% green energy scenario for them.

They often have grid interconnects to countries where solar does produce a lot, too.

Re: Solar is winning the energy race

#48

Post by adrianN »

healthy_throw wrote: post #44
mixermachine wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially for hot and sunny areas solar is insane. At mid day, max heat, you get the peak production and can run your AC at full throttle. That enables you to efficiently work at nice temperatures.

Heat reduces solar production, ideally you have very sunny environment with about 25C / 77F.

Panels are cheap, efficiency is not that important.

Re: Solar is winning the energy race

#49

Post by DamonHD »

cbmuser wrote: post #9
mmooss wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Connect enough grids and the sun is always shining.

Yeah, just build a 300 GW transmission line from the US to Europe. It will basically costs nothing.

https://www.earth.org.uk/note-on-EU-US-supergrid-interconnec...

Re: Solar is winning the energy race

#50

Post by adrianN »

red75prime wrote: post #23
defrost wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the article: Researchers at the Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology in Finland have worked out what a globally cost-effective energy supply could look like. Based on their model, 76% of the world's energy would come from solar. Wind power would make up an additional 20%, with the rest coming from hydro, biomass and geothermal energy.

The heat and electricity energy storage need to grow to 46000 TWh [1]. The current value is about 10 TWh. [1] https://uk.eragroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Global_sy...

Heat storage is quite cheap per kWh and has excellent economy of scale.
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