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Can solar costs keep shrinking?

unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com

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Re: Can solar costs keep shrinking?

#601

Post by JoeAltmaier »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #227
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #88

OP suggests that land costs will soon dominate the equation. So no mention of orbital solar plants? Yes, somebody years ago published a study that said, Uneconomical! because lift costs, panel cost, transmission inefficiencies. All of those are now drastically changed, by orders of magnitude. It is not a matter of IF orbital solar is economical, but WHEN.

You're suggesting land costs are the key here, but orbital solar beaming energy down as microwaves to earth need giant antenneas similar in land area to a solar farm as recievers. So there is no land advantage to offset the other costs.

Um. except the radiance is whatever you like. So if it's 10X normal solar watts/sqmeter then you need 1/10th the land.

Re: Can solar costs keep shrinking?

#603

Post by casperc »

caymanjim wrote: post #204

I spend four months of the year traveling in an RV. Two years ago, I budgeted over $6000 for my desired solar setup (at least 1200Ah of battery, at least 2400W of solar, plus various controllers and other components). It was expensive enough for me to hold off, and more importantly, I didn't have the space on my current RV for the solar panels. In just the two years since then, prices on batteries and panels have dro…

Can you recommend some resources for building and sourcing a solar setup like this?

Re: Can solar costs keep shrinking?

#604

Post by jodrellblank »

llsf wrote: post #577
MostlyStable wrote: post #534

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At any given efficiency, more energy means more productivity (in the same way: at any given amount of energy production, more efficiency means more productivity). Yes, we should be increasing efficiency where reasonable, but we should also be increasing energy production. There is a reason that the Kardashev scale is about energy utilization.

Correct, we can innovate and make the "transformer" (i.e. machines) more efficient (i.e. use less energy for same output). But the thing is, if energy was cheaper and more available we would just produce more. The reason why now we most enjoy some time off (weekend, vacation, retirement) is thank to the machines that can produce more with less humans. Now humans mostly drive the machines. I guess the ultimate extreme…

> "It would be one big machine (with lots of energy) extracting (and hopefully recycling) earth elements to satisfy humans."

See also that machine in fiction, breaking down: E.M. Forster's "The Machine Stops" from 1909, available free at Project Gutenberg https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/72890/pg72890-images.ht...

Re: Can solar costs keep shrinking?

#605

Post by WillAdams »

refurb wrote: post #598
WillAdams wrote: post #589

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they weren't used, they would quickly grow over and disappear.

Trail on a map don’t just “disappear” because they aren’t used.

Obviously you've never done trail maintenance --- an unused trail can quickly grow over, unless it is situated so that wildlife use it or there is some other mitigatingfactor.

Re: Can solar costs keep shrinking?

#606

Post by lsllc »

prdonahue wrote: post #580
lsllc wrote: post #573

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mind saying what company and which end of MA?

I did a system earlier this year with My Generation Energy, coincidentally while I was interviewing for the CPO role at Aurora Solar (where I am now). Highly recommend MGE if you’re in the Cape Cod area. Not sure how far off Cape they’ll go if not.

Looks like they're based in Hyannis, but the website says they cover Greater Boston, so I'll give them a call.

Thank you for responding!!!

Re: Can solar costs keep shrinking?

#607

Post by caymanjim »

casperc wrote: post #603
caymanjim wrote: post #204

I spend four months of the year traveling in an RV. Two years ago, I budgeted over $6000 for my desired solar setup (at least 1200Ah of battery, at least 2400W of solar, plus various controllers and other components). It was expensive enough for me to hold off, and more importantly, I didn't have the space on my current RV for the solar panels. In just the two years since then, prices on batteries and panels have dro…

Can you recommend some resources for building and sourcing a solar setup like this?

> Can you recommend some resources for building and sourcing a solar setup like this?

A lot of people like Will Prowse on YouTube[1]. I've watched a few of his battery test videos and it's influenced what I'll end up buying. I haven't watched any of his solar videos.

I've been lurking in r/SolarDIY[2] as well.

I'm buying a bunch of Victron[3] gear. They have forums, HOWTOs, some videos, plus the various product sheets. They have some circuit diagrams too.

The rest is Google and reading blog posts, DIY articles, price comparisons, etc. There are books, but I haven't read any.

I've got basic electronics chops and tinker with things a bit. I'm by no means an expert.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/@WillProwse [2]: https://www.reddit.com/r/SolarDIY/ [3]: https://www.victronenergy.com/

Re: Can solar costs keep shrinking?

#608

Post by tails4e »

spockz wrote: post #550
tails4e wrote: post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5kwh battery module for 1.2k in the EU. 13.5kw should be under 5k. Any system north of 15k is price gouging, unless the system is huge.

Where do you get batteries that cheap? I’ve been following the market here in the Netherlands and it is about €1000/kWh, going down a bit for batteries approaching 10kWh. Although, I haven’t checked for the last 6 months.

This is a local supplier of Dyness batteries, 15kwh for under 4.5k

https://midlandbatteries.com/products/dyness-15kwh-dl5-0c-ba...

Re: Can solar costs keep shrinking?

#609

Post by tails4e »

lacksconfidence wrote: post #553
tails4e wrote: post #438

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the Powerwall is also a ripoff vs many other options. 5kw battery module can be for for 1.2k, so 3 modules give 15kwh for under 5k

depends on the market. The 5kw options i was quoted were Enphase 5p batteries, average price from multiple installers was $5k per battery installed.

Compared to this, 15kwh for under 5k https://midlandbatteries.com/products/dyness-15kwh-dl5-0c-ba...

Needs an inverter though, but if you have solar you already should be ok

Re: Can solar costs keep shrinking?

#610

Post by TrapLord_Rhodo »

oezi wrote: post #44
EcommerceFlow wrote: post #37

I used to be radically pro-nuclear, but after seeing some of the data of solar growth and realizing we could just scale things up (like building iphones), I'm fully on board with the Elon strategy of solar + powerbanks for storage.

Elon has dropped out of this game pretty much. Its Chinese manufacturing for pretty much all components. But as the article says: the hardware is now less than half of the cost and shrinking further.

Energy is the fastest(only?) growing part of Tesla? Megapack and solar are all made in US.
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