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All the electricity you'll need for 40 years

innerpathing.com

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Re: All the electricity you'll need for 40 years

#11

Post by ramesh31 »

EQYV wrote: post #7
ramesh31 wrote: post #4

TIL mud huts are "solarpunk" and "Pinterest worthy" so long as you're doing it in the US.

Honest question, why is this your reaction? Why are people on this forum so unwilling to be happy for others? I have noticed that this attitude is extremely prominent in tech. Everything is either perfect (according to the person making the judgement) or it’s utterly worthy of ridicule. I am growing very, very tired of seeing this throughout tech.

>Why are people on this forum so unwilling to be happy for others?

It's a particularly offensive part of white culture that fetishizes a "return to the land" while billions around the world are trapped miserably eeking out that existence with literally zero opportunity to ever have anything else.

The only reason you feel "happy" for them is because you know its a cosplay charade they could walk away from at any time. Otherwise we would call this what it is; destitute poverty.

Re: All the electricity you'll need for 40 years

#12

Post by ximeng »

artificialprint wrote: post #2

People forget that solar panels don't grow on the trees, battery packs especially have very large footprint and their manufacturing is resource intensive.

From the article:

Solar panels and batteries depend on a global supply chain and take their own toll on the environment, but the life cycle emission of solar is ~40 gCO2/kWh, 25x lower than coal's 1,000 gCO2/kWh. And buying solar fuels innovation—such as alternatives to lithium-ion batteries now on the horizon.

Re: All the electricity you'll need for 40 years

#13

Post by shadowpho »

artificialprint wrote: post #2

People forget that solar panels don't grow on the trees, battery packs especially have very large footprint and their manufacturing is resource intensive.

Everything is relative though. Bikes also don’t grow on trees but they are several orders of magnitude more green then cars.

Re: All the electricity you'll need for 40 years

#14

Post by spacesanjeet »

sdk77 wrote: post #8

It's nice to have solar panels, I have them too and while they do generate even more electricity than I need, they do so in around 6 to 7 months peaking in July. So in winter, it's grid power and in summer I might need to pay to feed in the surplus. This is in the Netherlands. It's kind of sad to see all that electricity unused in summer, and knowing I could have enough for all of the winter if only there was some wa…

Isn't there a way to sell the unused solar power to the grid in summers and during winters the grid sends back the power needed to you at a discounted price?

Re: All the electricity you'll need for 40 years

#16

Post by saaaaaam »

EQYV wrote: post #7
ramesh31 wrote: post #4

TIL mud huts are "solarpunk" and "Pinterest worthy" so long as you're doing it in the US.

Honest question, why is this your reaction? Why are people on this forum so unwilling to be happy for others? I have noticed that this attitude is extremely prominent in tech. Everything is either perfect (according to the person making the judgement) or it’s utterly worthy of ridicule. I am growing very, very tired of seeing this throughout tech.

I suspect that the comment was provoked by the term “solarpunk”.

For many people in non first world countries this sort of existence is standard - not something to be blogged about with artfully composed photos carefully edited and posted to the internet.

So I guess the comment was provoked by something like that. It was certainly one of my reactions reading the piece. I also thought “oh that’s cool, I wonder how they did it” but it was very short on detail, made up for by self-congratulatory back patting.

Maybe the person making the comment lives in a developing country and finds it a little jarring to see “solarpunk” cosplay.

Re: All the electricity you'll need for 40 years

#17

Post by churchill »

I live here in Nigeria where electricity has been epileptic since I was born (I'm 23 now). Like, I live in one of the nicer suburbs in my state, but 12h of power isn't guaranteed.

So, last year, I spent $7k on 8.4 KW of panels (400W * 21), an inverter, and 20KWh of batteries.

It's been life-changing. I've been able to go completely off-grid. Like, I disconnected from the grid (i.e., my meter) completely. And my usage has gone up to around 50KWh daily (air conditioners, fridges, etc.) but it hums along day-after-day. That assurance that the power won't trip off while I'm on a meeting with a client has done wonders for my mental health among others. Just reliable, stable power.

And, given that I used to pay $0.12 per KWh, the whole setup will pay for itself in 2.7 years. Just under two years to go.

Re: All the electricity you'll need for 40 years

#18

Post by saaaaaam »

ramesh31 wrote: post #11
EQYV wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question, why is this your reaction? Why are people on this forum so unwilling to be happy for others? I have noticed that this attitude is extremely prominent in tech. Everything is either perfect (according to the person making the judgement) or it’s utterly worthy of ridicule. I am growing very, very tired of seeing this throughout tech.

>Why are people on this forum so unwilling to be happy for others? It's a particularly offensive part of white culture that fetishizes a "return to the land" while billions around the world are trapped miserably eeking out that existence with literally zero opportunity to ever have anything else. The only reason you feel "happy" for them is because you know its a cosplay charade they could walk away from at any time.…

We posted the same time. You said it better than I did!

But - cosplay - 100%

Re: All the electricity you'll need for 40 years

#19

Post by Gare »

sdk77 wrote: post #8

It's nice to have solar panels, I have them too and while they do generate even more electricity than I need, they do so in around 6 to 7 months peaking in July. So in winter, it's grid power and in summer I might need to pay to feed in the surplus. This is in the Netherlands. It's kind of sad to see all that electricity unused in summer, and knowing I could have enough for all of the winter if only there was some wa…

Maybe you could use the IJsselmeer as a pumped storage hydro ;)

Re: All the electricity you'll need for 40 years

#20

Post by sdk77 »

spacesanjeet wrote: post #14
sdk77 wrote: post #8

It's nice to have solar panels, I have them too and while they do generate even more electricity than I need, they do so in around 6 to 7 months peaking in July. So in winter, it's grid power and in summer I might need to pay to feed in the surplus. This is in the Netherlands. It's kind of sad to see all that electricity unused in summer, and knowing I could have enough for all of the winter if only there was some wa…

Isn't there a way to sell the unused solar power to the grid in summers and during winters the grid sends back the power needed to you at a discounted price?

Well, until '27, I'm allowed to use the grid as a free battery, basically, this is a kind of government subsidy. But that will end, and the contracts available will be fixed price with a feed in tariff or dynamic (realtime) market price, but then prices can and have been negative during peak solar hours. A battery can solve this only for a bit, and maybe with smart algorithms it can be trading on the electricity market full time, I'm not sure if that makes enough money for the grid power in winter.. it's nice to think about though.
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