21–30 of 143 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
this is not my field, but you couldn't just have it orient to point of brightest intensity?
Yeah but that requires knowing control theory rather than “learning” it. Control theory is better if you know what you’re doing. ML is technical debt for sure.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
So large solar farms are usually single-axis tracking, which provides a huge energy production benefit over static panels. Consider this panel's application more for a standalone installment, where it could make sense to use a dual-axis tracking panel over a single-axis or static panel. Re: solar farms and cost, I actually learned that around ~70% of the cost of solar installation is soft costs, not the actual panels…
> around ~70% of the cost of solar installation is soft costs This is incorrect, especially for solar farms Panels are indeed only about 1/3 of the cost. Additional components, labour, inverter, mounting - another 1/3. The last third is indeed soft(ish) cost, but this includes profit (duh..), certification, survey, tax, fees, etc. This can be reduced, but it is not going to magically disappear ... Another fun fact :…
NREL’s model puts soft costs at 44% for a 100MW fixed-tilt utility-scale plant in 2021:
https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy22osti/80694.pdf
The percentage goes up as the installation size goes down, but it is not 70%
Given any GPS coordinates, couldn't one simply calculate the location of the sun in the sky to point directly toward it?
Here is how they do it. https://gml.noaa.gov/grad/solcalc/calcdetails.html
Sorry for the off-topic. I think if just 10% of the efforts were put on improving mini/micro/pico hydro electric generator rather than on solar systems, most of the rural areas will probably better off now with reliable power supply than relying solely on the intermittent solar power[1], [2]. [1]Micro hydro: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_hydro [2]Micro hydro power with turgo generator: https://youtu.be/njNYuE…
Sorry for the off-topic. I think if just 10% of the efforts were put on improving mini/micro/pico hydro electric generator rather than on solar systems, most of the rural areas will probably better off now with reliable power supply than relying solely on the intermittent solar power[1], [2]. [1]Micro hydro: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_hydro [2]Micro hydro power with turgo generator: https://youtu.be/njNYuE…
I'll just leave this here... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL9PcGu_xrA&t=174s
Sorry for the off-topic. I think if just 10% of the efforts were put on improving mini/micro/pico hydro electric generator rather than on solar systems, most of the rural areas will probably better off now with reliable power supply than relying solely on the intermittent solar power[1], [2]. [1]Micro hydro: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_hydro [2]Micro hydro power with turgo generator: https://youtu.be/njNYuE…
Solar isn't being developed for rural communities though, so this is a bit of a non sequitur.
Given any GPS coordinates, couldn't one simply calculate the location of the sun in the sky to point directly toward it?
My general approach is if we're not doing X and it sure seems like we could simply do X, we probably cannot simply do X.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
So large solar farms are usually single-axis tracking, which provides a huge energy production benefit over static panels. Consider this panel's application more for a standalone installment, where it could make sense to use a dual-axis tracking panel over a single-axis or static panel. Re: solar farms and cost, I actually learned that around ~70% of the cost of solar installation is soft costs, not the actual panels…
> around ~70% of the cost of solar installation is soft costs This is incorrect, especially for solar farms Panels are indeed only about 1/3 of the cost. Additional components, labour, inverter, mounting - another 1/3. The last third is indeed soft(ish) cost, but this includes profit (duh..), certification, survey, tax, fees, etc. This can be reduced, but it is not going to magically disappear ... Another fun fact :…
Panels that work with light from either side are preferred for this use.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah but that requires knowing control theory rather than “learning” it. Control theory is better if you know what you’re doing. ML is technical debt for sure.
I'm more and more convinced of this. Control theory appears to be like lightsabers, "a refined weapon for a more civilized age". It's really unfortunately that the controls literature is so opaque.
The "if you know what you’re doing" here does not refer to the ability to understand control theory. It means that if you know the underlying dynamics, there is mathematically nothing better than controlling those dynamics. Flying a plane, oscillating a circuit, etc. are all things we can do very well without ML because we have exact models of the physical phenomena. Playing chess has no dynamics, control theory is useless. Anything where the dynamics are not "nice" differential equations, ML is probably easier at learning the dynamics than coming up with an ansatz.