It's 2024 and drought is optional • Hacker News Board

Re: It's 2024 and drought is optional

#51

Post by zdragnar » Thu, May 16, 2024, 5:58 AM UTC

epistasis wrote: post #40

zdragnar wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a four thousand acre solar panel setup in Texas that was demolished by a hail storm a month ago. Despite the "everything in Texas is bigger" motto, worldwide 3 million doesn't sound too far fetched if a single install in Texas is already 4,000 acres.

That's surprising, I've seen lots of photos of solar farms post hail storm where there was minimal damage. Perhaps the hail is bigger in Texas (at least for that storm).

Reports put the size around that of a golf ball with some upwards of a baseball. Those larger ones definitely have the energy to wreck anything but the most resilient glass.

A similar event happened in Nebraska last year (I think). They got the plant back up and running in roughly six months, which is quite the feat given the amount of labor disposing and installing new panels involves.

Then again, six months is a very long time for a plant to be producing no power at all. Keeping these plants spread out will increase the odds of outages but will be necessary for them to become critical infrastructure.

Re: It's 2024 and drought is optional

#52

Post by bestouff » Thu, May 16, 2024, 10:41 AM UTC

resolutebat wrote: post #25

viburnum wrote: post #17

Leftover brine is really a problem though https://www.wired.com/story/desalination-is-booming-but-what...

It's not a huge problem: it's the same salt that was in the sea, just more concentrated. Dilute it well enough and it's a literal drop in the ocean. The article also mentions that inefficient thermal desal produces much more brine, with modern RO desal being more efficient.

Yes just dilute it. In freshwater. Freshwater you got from ... where already ?

Re: It's 2024 and drought is optional

#53

Post by epistasis » Thu, May 16, 2024, 4:19 PM UTC

maxerickson wrote: post #47

worik wrote: post #29

> Last year, the world installed about 437 GW of solar electricity, or roughly one acre of panels every 10 seconds How can that be true. That's over three million acres. Really?

Are you saying it isn't very much? It's about equivalent to a single larger US county (but well down the list from largest).

Most people don't realize how much solar is getting deployed and how quickly it's grown, so the poster is most likely expecting the opposite direction.

Meanwhile, numbers in solar always seem to exceed estimates, see for example this veteran forecaster joking about the 1TW/year deployment mark:

> Reasons solar industry analysts don't want to forecast that a terawatt gets built in a year, ever:

> - axis on chart doesn't go that high

> - makes wind industry feel bad

> - can't find markets to put it all in without the number being clearly ridiculous for that specific market

https://x.com/solar_chase/status/1791088142738411565?s=46

Re: It's 2024 and drought is optional

#54

Post by svsoc » Thu, May 16, 2024, 10:02 PM UTC

bestouff wrote: post #52

resolutebat wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a huge problem: it's the same salt that was in the sea, just more concentrated. Dilute it well enough and it's a literal drop in the ocean. The article also mentions that inefficient thermal desal produces much more brine, with modern RO desal being more efficient.

Yes just dilute it. In freshwater. Freshwater you got from ... where already ?

Why do you want to dilute it in freshwater?