The future of solar doesn't track the sun • Hacker News Board

Re: The future of solar doesn't track the sun

#151

Post by jillesvangurp » Mon, May 05, 2025, 8:09 PM UTC

derriz wrote: post #104

jillesvangurp wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article seems to be mostly about grid scale solar. Of course an increasing amount is private or domestic solar installed on e.g. building roofs or wherever there is space. When cost drops low enough, any surface with any exposure to sunlight is in scope for installing solar on if it can yield more energy than the cost of installing solar on it. It stops being about what is the most efficient and starts being abou…

“When cost drops low enough, any surface with any exposure to sunlight is in scope for installing solar on if it can yield more energy than the cost of installing solar on it.” I don’t see the logic? As panel prices drop, installation costs start dominating overall cost of energy produced and so economic pressures will be on simpler and simpler PV installations. Laying a panel almost flat on the ground amongst thousa…

> I don’t see the logic?

You use the surface area you have. Most people simply don't have a lot of ground to put solar on but they might have a roof. Also, you don't just need solar panels but also the wires to where the power is needed. On the roof of the building where you are using the power is just about as close as you can get with that.

Otherwise it's a simple economic equation. If installing solar saves enough money such that you end up with a decent return on investment then making that investment is more optimal than not making that investment.

That's why most of Australia is running on rooftop solar when the sun is shining. The US is a bit behind on that mostly because the US has a lot of rules stacked in favor of grid providers. Australia used to have that and eventually the grid providers lost that battle.

Re: The future of solar doesn't track the sun

#152

Post by thechao » Tue, May 06, 2025, 1:02 PM UTC

adrianN wrote: post #149

thechao wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an enormous premium on heat pumps in the U.S. So, there's a manufacturer of heat pumps here, in Austin; they sell a heat pump for 1600$ in Australia (installed); but the same unit is 9000$ (installed) in Austin. Part of the difference is labor (about 1000$); the rest ... I dunno? The difference in cost in electricity vs. propane runs about 1500$/yr. My current HVAC unit is good for another 5 years, or so. I'l…

1500 return on 9000 investment is 16%. Hard to beat that with other investments.

Understood, but the heat pump, itself, depreciates. They're good for about 10 years, out here, so you'd have to knock 900$/yr off the "investment". That takes it down to 6%, which is better than a high yield savings account, for sure. My suspicion is that the folk who make these heat pumps are well aware of the pricing structure in central Texas.

Re: The future of solar doesn't track the sun

#153

Post by Aerroon » Thu, May 08, 2025, 3:51 PM UTC

solardev wrote: post #146

Aerroon wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see. I imagined then being panels on like a hinge that you like unbolt, tilt a little and then bolt down again. I didn't know it would take multiple people to do it.

Yeah, you could maybe design something like that. It'd still be quite a lot of work to go through all the panels one at a time every few months, though. And doing the math to remember what angle to point them at would be annoying and error prone.

Couldn't you tilt different panels at different angles for a few days to measure their output and then go with the one that performed the best?

Re: The future of solar doesn't track the sun

#154

Post by lucb1e » Sat, May 10, 2025, 12:44 AM UTC

Omniusaspirer wrote: post #113

lucb1e wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consider where that methane / natural gas is coming from. Their homepage says (with the world's most convoluted hyphen-omitting compound adjective, but basically see the last 6 words): > March 2024: Terraform completes the end to end demo, successfully producing fossil carbon free pipeline grade natural gas from sunlight and air. If you take carbon from the air, mix in energy from the sun to turn it into a fuel, then…

Not seeing the economics for this ever truly working out, CO2 PPM is very low despite our best efforts and the amount of energy required for separation is substantial.

The economics of taking out a loan or insurance for things you can pay out of pocket also don't work out, but there are apparently entire countries routinely buying groceries and appliances on credit

I'm not saying this is a logical thing to do (note where I wrote "There's more efficient ways to solve the climate problem"), but I've seen humans making less sensible decisions than this one so, who knows, it might actually happen...