171–180 of 216 posts
I am sceptical about putting PV on roofs, seems a lot of hassle and waymore expensive then using just flatground: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhadla_Solar_Park Any additional money spent on it, could have helped to install more PV or batteries.
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Yes, but one back-of-the-envelope calculation (it was a Python program someone wrote up as part of a comment on Slashdot as I recall) demonstrated that if all of New York's roofs were covered in solar panels there would be enough energy to run the city....
Enough energy or enough electricity?
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I should have made it clear: I’m referring to people who are adamantly opposed to large solar installations, apparently because it’s a threat to agriculture? It’s very odd, but I see yard signs and bumper stickers everywhere in rural Indiana.
Do you think some farms in rural Indiana will make more money by converting to a solar power park? I could imagine it, and I could imagine that some people would feel threatened by this change.
https://energyandpolicy.org/fossil-fuel-funding-opposition-r...
I am sceptical about putting PV on roofs, seems a lot of hassle and waymore expensive then using just flatground: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhadla_Solar_Park Any additional money spent on it, could have helped to install more PV or batteries.
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Yes. In Germany they are selling a lot of models, but none, I mean, really, none asked about the rentability. So I went to a neighbour who just installed his 25kW and was very proud and happy, and asked him, in how many years is the return of investment. Siderated, he could not answer and then a few days later, with a very stern face: 25 years or more because if more people install these, the price that the city is p…
25kW? That is crazy huge! How many panels? What does this guys house (mansion!?) look like? Google tells me that average installation size is about 7-8kW.
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> incredible conversation starter for homeowners who might not have considered taking on a home solar project otherwise Once you do the math in a Northern country (sans subsidies) it's not as compelling as you might think.
By "Northen" I assume you mean Europe, and (most of) USA? I live near the 33rd parallel South. Since installing solar my annual grid requirements are around 30% of before solar [1] ‐ even as my actual consumption has risen [2]. As far as "Northern" goes countries in my latitude north (or better) include India, Mexica, all of Africa, most of China, and so on. So for most people living in the north it is compelling [4]…
People wrongly assume that you can put Europe and the US in the same basket (because temperature-wise climate is comparable), but half of Europe is further north than Montreal, and almost all of it is beyond Philadelphia, so no you can't really say “Europe and most of the US”.
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Yes. In Germany they are selling a lot of models, but none, I mean, really, none asked about the rentability. So I went to a neighbour who just installed his 25kW and was very proud and happy, and asked him, in how many years is the return of investment. Siderated, he could not answer and then a few days later, with a very stern face: 25 years or more because if more people install these, the price that the city is p…
What if he added previous generation crypto miner (so it's cheap) and use the excess electricity instead of selling it to the grid? This could also save some money on heating in winter unless he has a heat pump priced in already.
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> more windows pointed due south, which in turn drives much more solar gain on the interior and greater cooling loads as a result C'mon ... people figured this out in 70s ... and centuries before that in various parts of the world. You put a shade above the window the excludes direct summer sun, but allows direct winter sun to enter the window. The angle and extent of the shade depends on where you are in the world.…
Oh I’m totally with you! There is a long and storied history of passive design strategies, and exterior shading is one of the oldest ones out there! But what I stated is plainly true, and many people simply don’t want exterior shades (or just don’t think about it). The point I was trying to make was just that there are thermal implications to the orientation, and you should think those through (using thermal simulati…
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As someone who recently lost power and water for weeks post Helene, do not discount the power of distributed grids. Distributed core infrastructure will make for much better climate resilience. Don't miss this in your efficiency calculations.
Grid connected solar goes down when the grid is out though. You need specific inverters to retain power. You also just have issues like the low chance of having clear skies after a hurricane or a bushfire. For disaster situation power, a diesel generator is still the cheapest and most reliable option.
The shelf life of diesel is about a year; the shelf life of propane is effectively unlimited.