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Following 35% growth, solar has passed hydro on US grid

arstechnica.com

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Re: Following 35% growth, solar has passed hydro on US grid

#431

Post by pjc50 »

eucyclos wrote: post #405
jandrese wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the hardest part of building a solar farm is the permitting. Many municipalities are hostile to the idea of converting farmland into solar fields, even with agrovoltaics. There are special interest groups that may come in and try to derail your project by propagandizing the local community against it. "But what will we eat?" is a propaganda point that you will hear a lot even though it's totally bogus. If I w…

That's probably why it's best to stay small. If you've gotten permits for 10kw project in a backyard or on a Walmart roof, you'll probably have a leg up when you start playing at a scale that brings out the nimbys.

This depends; my UK 3.9kWh installation was permit-exempt, requiring only an MCS certified installer so I could be eligible for feed-in tariffs. The permit regime changes as the schemes get larger.

Re: Following 35% growth, solar has passed hydro on US grid

#432

Post by jdejean »

rudhdb773b wrote: post #371
yowayb wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a theory that corruption+nepotism are unstoppable forces of nature. Advanced governments only force corruption to distribute and obfuscate. I think this is why there appears to be some correlation between unpopular behavior and financial success. Government essentially erects artificial barriers to entry on behalf of the incumbent businesses that fund it.

That's why I see AI (with a clear set of provided objectives and guidelines, i.e., a constitution) as the future of government. As dystopian as that sounds, it's the only way I see to truly rid ourselves of corruption.

Why would AI at that scale not have the exact corruptible inclination humans have?

Re: Following 35% growth, solar has passed hydro on US grid

#433

Post by oblio »

jiggawatts wrote: post #386
WarmWash wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone desperately needs to build the largest solar farm on earth, nakedly as a direct affront to China, and call it the "The Grand Trump Sun Energy Complex", with a large statue of him standing at the center of the massive radial field of panels. The dude would have no choice but to approve it and provide funding for it.

With what panels? The vast majority are made in China.

So are MAGA hats.

Re: Following 35% growth, solar has passed hydro on US grid

#434

Post by tialaramex »

jandrese wrote: post #338
yoyohello13 wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like renewable maintenance companies will make a killing.

Solar plants don’t need much maintenance. The lack of moving parts means mostly it is just mowing the grass. The transmission infrastructure does need maintenance. Batteries have pretty low upkeep too.

And if you live in the right place "mowing the grass" can mean you lease the land for somebody to farm goats or sheep on it and so you get a small extra income.

Re: Following 35% growth, solar has passed hydro on US grid

#435

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

underlipton wrote: post #327
citrin_ru wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even the solar panel market is self defeating. Once there is enough installed power the demand will drop off sharply as the refresh cycle is too long. It's not going to happen soon - solar is still just 8% of world energy production. Even if solar will cover 100% of consumption on a sunny day it still would make sense to buy more panels to have enough output on a cloudy day or in the morning/evening. It's likely pr…

It also assumes that there will never be demand for improved solar generation orthogonal to currently-prioritized metrics. As an example, a nice park near my house was clear-cut to install a solar farm a few years ago. I used to enjoy walks under the trees in that park, and seeing the animals that lived there. Perhaps as solar infrastructure becomes more stable and secure, concerns will turn towards the ecological ra…

> concerns will turn towards the ecological ramifications of covering so much of the Earth's surface with ecological deserts

About that "solar panels cause ecological deserts" trope:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S03014...

https://glassalmanac.com/china-confirms-that-installing-sola...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrivoltaics

Re: Following 35% growth, solar has passed hydro on US grid

#436

Post by tialaramex »

jandrese wrote: post #226
floatrock wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chinese also have battery manufacturing, whose rapidly falling cost-curve is what is missing to enable 24/7 solar. American empire ruled with the petrodollar. Chinese will rule with the solaryuan if we don't get our shit together.

You just slightly missed the crux of the issue here. The big "problem" with renewables like solar is that once you've installed enough for yourself you are done for like 30 years. There is no monthly sun fee you need to keep paying. There is no solardollar , because there's nothing that needs to be extracted, transported, and sold every single day. A lot of billionaires are in an existential crisis over a world where…

I think one place this could go, a decade or more in our future is that the electricity isn't worth metering but the fact you can have electricity is billed. Think of a typical phone service today. You don't pay to send a text or read Hacker News on your phone, but you do pay for the privilege to be able to do either of those whenever you want.

So I'm imagining instead of spending 40p per day plus 24p per kWh maybe it's £1 per day and usage isn't really metered. A few people would abuse this, but if energy is cheap enough it's barely worth caring.

Re: Following 35% growth, solar has passed hydro on US grid

#437

Post by jp191919 »

lazide wrote: post #193
richardubright wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looking at the data for lake that goes through the dam, it seems like they keep it at the same level. So it probably CAN make 7MW with more flow, but generally only flows at a state that puts out 2.

There is no way it’s max is 7MW. They likely meant 7GW. 7MW is the amount of power you can get from a couple of diesel gensets, waaaay smaller than even a small power plant [ https://www.cat.com/en_US/products/new/power-systems/electri... ]

Yes, 7GW. I can't edit original comment.

Re: Following 35% growth, solar has passed hydro on US grid

#438

Post by devin »

nerdralph wrote: post #203
devin wrote: post #181

Does anyone in these comments have any tips for would-be solar farmers or people who are generally interested in being part of building out the future of our grid? I'd like to get my hands dirty. I'm talking about getting into 5-10 MW projects, not solar on a roof.

Don't start with a 5MW project. Start with a 10-20kW ground-mount project in your back yard. Then build a 100-200kW project before trying MW.

Why? Like, I can think of obvious reasons, but what are you trying to say someone will learn from this stepping?

Re: Following 35% growth, solar has passed hydro on US grid

#440

Post by bryanlarsen »

jandrese wrote: post #243
bryanlarsen wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That entire talk didn't once mention the phrase "energy density" which is the real reason we rely so heavily on hydrocarbons. For planes. For no other major use of hydrocarbons is it the primary concern.

Transatlantic shipping also. Planes require highly refined fuel though, while ships can burn most anything flammable, even really crappy biofuels. Hardly anything is worse than heavy fuel oil.

Different types of density. Transatlantic shipping cares primarily about volumetric density, air travel cares primarily about gravimetric density.

So we can both be correct since OP was not specific. :)

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