Dawn of Solar Age Declared as PV Beats All Other Forms of Power (bloomberg.com) 398
Solar power blossomed faster than for any other fuel for the first time in 2016, the International Energy Agency said in a report suggesting the technology will dominate renewables in the years ahead. From a report: The institution established after the first major oil crisis in 1973 said 165 gigawatts of renewables were completed last year, which was two-thirds of the net expansion in electricity supply. Solar grew by 50 percent, with almost half new plants built in China. "What we are witnessing is the birth of a new era in solar PV," Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA, said in a statement accompanying the report published on Wednesday in Paris. "We expect that solar PV capacity growth will be higher than any other renewable technology through 2022." This marks the sixth consecutive year that clean energy has set records for installations. Mass manufacturing and a switch by governments away from fixed payments for renewables forced down the cost of wind and solar technology. The IEA expects about 1,000 gigawatts of renewables will be installed in the next five years, a milestone that coal only accomplished after 80 years. That quantity of electricity surpasses what's consumed in China, India and Germany combined.
PV = Photovoltaics (Score:5, Informative)
Always a bad thing to assume people know your 2-letter acronyms.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Photovoltaics (PV) is a term which covers the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. A typical photovoltaic system employs solar panels, each comprising a number of solar cells, which generate electrical power. PV installations may be ground-mounted, rooftop mounted or wall mounted. The mount may be fixed, or use a solar tracker to follow the sun across the sky.
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Yeah, I thought it was "Palos Verdes" (LA thing)
As another commenter has said, now that we have so much photo-voltaic power available, we've reached the point where are ready to bootstrap ourselves beyond having to measure in fossil fuel terms. Pretty cool. Bulk purchasers of solar panels must be paying less than 50 cents a watt. The biggest challenge for solar panel lifetime is hail, and they're pretty durable even then.
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I work in software, not hardware, you insensitive clod! :-)
Next up (Score:2)
It begins (Score:2)
Second came the coal age.
Third came the oil age.
Fourth came the nuclear age.
Fifth came the solar age.
Sixth will see the dawn of the crystal age [wikipedia.org].
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Is this like the year of Linux on the desktop? (Score:2)
I mean, folks can "declare" whatever right? I can declare myself to be the Queen of France.
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"I mean, folks can "declare" whatever right? I can declare myself to be the Queen of France."
Does that mean we can eat cake?
And why wouldn't they take off (Score:3)
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The only thing left for me to do is buy a lithium-ion rechargeable battery for my home so I can have power when the sun goes down
You don't have power except when the sun is high overhead on a clear day? That would explain why your electric bill is so low.
IEA renewable forecasts are not trustworthy (Score:2)
IEA is known for persistently underestimating the rollout of renewable energi. Here's the latest analysis [quora.com] I know of.
Basically, they project a linear growth, even though they've themselves increased their estimates with several percents on each revision of their estimates, i.e. exponentially...
In other words, any discussion based on their forecasts is most likely going to be way off.
Can't compare capacities between power sources (Score:3)
So assuming the non-renewable expansions averaged a 50% capacity factor, we get:
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*Typical capacity factors are about:
90% for nuclear..."
Article is bullshit. Nuclear does work only if cooling works, the article ignores that when rivers are frozen in winter or too hot in summer, the reactors have to shut down, just as the innumerable times when some 'incident' happens.
165 Gigawatts?!?! (Score:2)
idiocy milestone (Score:2)
Perhaps people don't realize this, but a sentence like this actively kills brain cells. Stupidity, you're soaking in it.
To be fair, it doesn't outfight kill brain cells, but it does actively repurpose them away from gainful employment (which might, in fact, be worse).
First off, you'd want to be comparing per capita growth rates, and confine yourself to develop
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Photovoltaics.
Bing! The best way to google something!
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Re:Not encouraging (Score:4, Interesting)
Maybe it will kick-start companies to do more battery research. Better batteries will fundamentally change a lot of items, especially transportation. Get a battery to 1/10 the energy density per volume as gasoline, and you won't need internal combustion engines anymore. Get battery tech cheaper, and Tesla Powerwall like whole-house UPS systems become common, which can allow battery banks to charge when it is cheapest, as well as provide a couple hours of power if the grid drops.
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We already have that.
It is called 'flow batteries'.
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They're already for sale. You can store a few hours/days of electricity, no problem at all. They're just about economic now, and still plummeting in price. Tesla is currently installing a whole bunch in Australia for example.
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http://www.renewableenergyworl... [renewableenergyworld.com]
I assume that is what you are referring to? They would need a storage capacity of about 150 times what they are installing for your "days" of electricity to be accurate. Completely and utterly out of the question to be cost effective.
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A renewable energy source that requires batteries to be useful when there is no sunlight is rapidly going to price storage out of reach.
don't see that at all. This is driving energy storage technology in ways it had never been pushed before. Now there's a market for energy storage and it's for the US to lose.
The next decade could be really rough for the traditional energy providers, as we will have to figure out ways to keep them afloat and at the same time, improve our transmission and distribution capabilities. I'm looking at the Texas model, where generation, transmission, distribution, and retail can all be separated, and wondering how
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Re:Rather a Short 'Age' (Score:5, Insightful)
That's already figured into the cost. Still comes out ahead. And once we start using photovoltaic energy to make photovoltaics, we take fossil fuels out of the picture entirely.
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yeah, after 25 years it "only" has 80% of its initial rated max output. Which means you can use them for 50 years easily.
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Most solar panels have a WARRANTY of 30 years or more.
No idea why people here on /. are so eager to spread that 20 or 25 year myth.
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Most solar panels have a WARRANTY of 30 years or more.
To the original purchasers only, non-transferable to subsequent owners? One average people only own a home for 12 years in the US.
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The warranty is to the item, regardless who owns it.
If that is differnet in you country, you have a fucked up law system.
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Damaging winds, thunderstorms, snow, tornadoes, and damaging hail are all common in my area and a large solar install would be prone to taking damage. Wind on the other hand would do very well so long as you could easily secure the turbine for times of extreme weather.
Re:What happens in 15-20 years? (Score:4, Insightful)
They have no moving parts (unless you use trackers) and they take advantage of "free" energy that will be here as long as the earth is habitable. It is inevitable that they will take over energy production.
Re:What happens in 15-20 years? (Score:5, Informative)
Personal anecdote, but I have a former neighbor who still has PV panels up that he threw in his backyard back in the 1980s, and they are still running at their rated wattage, if not a little bit above it.
The nice thing about solar panels is the fact that once set up, assuming no active tracking system, you don't have to do much upkeep. No moving parts, everything is solid state, and if one has an on-grid system, there are no batteries to have to keep watered or replaced.
I really can't think of anything wrong with solar, other than the obvious... it only works a part of the day.
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I really can't think of anything wrong with solar, other than the obvious... it only works a part of the day.
There's nothing at all wrong with solar as a way to generate electricity.
The problem comes when people suggest that solar is a way to reliably generate electricity. As you note, it isn't.
Since we like the lights to come on whenever we flip the switch, that means that even if the power companies come up with reasonably low-loss storage technologies to even out the part of a day problem, that still doesn't solve the cloudy/rainy day problem. And thus, installed solar capacity can't be counted on to be the
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And thus, installed solar capacity can't be counted on to be there at any particular point in time and requires fossil fuel capacity as a backup.
Or you do what others do: you have a back up solar plant. Wow that was so simple again.
When was the last time that whole Africa was under clouds? Or whole USA?
Re:What happens in 15-20 years? (Score:4, Informative)
Right. That's why system operators like California ISO aren't counting each and every megawatt generated by renewables.
http://www.caiso.com/outlook/o... [caiso.com]
http://www.caiso.com/informed/... [caiso.com]
http://www.caiso.com/informed/... [caiso.com]
Also, SoCal Edison has been bringing online some incredible advances in energy storage technology. Systems like these will begin taking hold across the country over the course of the next decade, changing the dynamics of solar energy availability and reliability.
https://www.edison.com/home/in... [edison.com]
It ain't your grandpa's solar panel anymore. The system is evolving.
Re:What happens in 15-20 years? (Score:4, Insightful)
Ultracaps happen. Hopefully. (Score:3)
Out on the bleeding edge, you can already build electrical storage that is maintenance-free, and does not require grid connection. I built a pilot installation for my radio trailer [flickr.com] - I'm a ham operator - where the storage is entirely ultracap based. I've got enough out there to provide about as much power as two 110 AH car batteries, which is more than enough to run the th
Re:What happens in 15-20 years? (Score:5, Insightful)
'I winter in Germany, solar output is almost non-existant.'
Get a brush until climate change takes care of the snow.
"Do solar panels work in the winter?
A common myth is that solar panels do not work during winter, but in contrary, the cold temperature will typically improve solar panel output. The white snow can also reflect light and help improve PV performance. Winter will only hurt solar production if the panels are covered with snow."
http://news.energysage.com/sol... [energysage.com]
Re:What happens in 15-20 years? (Score:4, Interesting)
We have no winters in Germany anymore anyway. ... another week later. Does it snow? Sometimes. The last 30 years I perhaps had to clean the pavement 10 times. ... since decades. ... snow up to a meter. The army was sent out to clear streets in the 1970s (with tanks!!). Several years in a row! ... I had school free for weeks because the ferry to my school did not go/could not go.
If there is frost, it is for a week
Average winter temperature, even at night, is significantly above freezing point
As a child we had -30 degrees C
We had absurd high water marks (floodings) in spring, ships could not travel for months
Actually you could not even reach it as most of the road to the ferry was a dam: closed for cars because of fear of damage to the dam.
Now we rarely have a high water, because there is not enough snow in the mountains to cause it in spring.
The days with highest *percentage* of solar contribution are actually winter holidays with clear skies, like 1st of January. Of course the reason is: it is a holiday, peak demand is only 60% of a work day. But it looks amazing when you see around 12:00, 50% of your power comes from solar alone.
Re:What happens in 15-20 years? (Score:5, Informative)
It's like that in texas too. We used to have 6 good weeks of winter with regular periods longer than a week where there was ice on the ground while I walked to school.
Now, we get a few hours at night of freezing temperatures. But (on topic) we did get 8 weeks of overcast a couple years ago. That would have been a bad case for solar.
That said...
https://cleantechnica.com/2017... [cleantechnica.com]
Germany has gotten 85% of their total power generation from solar some days this year and projects that such days will become increasingly common going forward. By 2030, they project year round coverage (which means during sunny months they will have power to spare.).
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I would present the same starter question to you: Are you fucking serious? .5 * energy hitting those square feet of your roof during winter > 0 * energy hitting those square feet of your roof during winter.
Oh no, it's not perfect. Well, better that we do nothing at all and continue burning oil and coal until the perfect solution based on unicorn gall bladders is announced!
Don't be an idiot.
Re:What happens in 15-20 years? (Score:5, Interesting)
They have no moving parts (unless you use trackers) and they take advantage of "free" energy that will be here as long as the earth is habitable.
I'm always amused that engineers miss the giant fusion reactor in the sky.
I'm still waiting for quantum tunneling junctions. These are solid-state devices which are currently researcher voodoo: you can make one, but most of its surface is useless. Boeng has confirmed they work, just that you make one the size of a quarter and you get a few square micrometers of useful area.
A quantum tunneling junction has something like 55% carnot efficiency for any given temperature drop at any absolute temperature which doesn't physically damage the material. It's similar to a peltier junction, which has 8% efficiency. Essentially, a peltier junction has electrons shifting more or less easily across a junction when a voltage potential is applied, which may cause them to release or absorb heat. A quantum tunneling junction has electrons crossing a dielectric when a voltage potential exists across two plates; the electrons have higher probability of crossing if they have higher energy, so "hot" electrons (absorb photons, i.e. thermal energy) move more-frequently, cooling one side and heating the other.
Cute. What can we do with it?
Ever filled a scuba tank?
When you compress a gas, it releases heat. release the gas elsewhere and it absorbs heat (gets cold). In fact, if you chill the tank enough and open it, you won't get any pressure: you freeze N2 into liquid N2 and now the N2 doesn't contain enough energy to produce force, thus pressure. Boiling is just molecules moving so forcefully they shove fluid out of the way and escape the vessel (buoyancy in a boiling liquid only occurs because the molecules in the bubble have enough energy to push the liquid away, making a low-density region that happens to be in the gas phase; add gravity and the low-density region is pushed to the surface by the heavy liquid).
So set up two compression chambers. Feed from a pump run off an engine; power the engine off this chamber. Use electricity from a battery (charged from an alternator off the engine) to run a quantum tunneling junction and pull heat emitted and from the atmosphere into the compressed air vessel.
Engineers like to point out here that you can't run a heat engine off a heat pump that shares its reservoir. They're talking about the atmosphere being the heat reservoir.
It's not an ideal reservoir.
You're emitting cold air into the atmosphere: the engine expands the air, which absorbs heat and spits out expanded (cooled) air. That air exits at a lower temperature than the air being pulled into the compression vessel, as well as the air from which the quantum tunneling junction is driving heat into the vessel. You're not injecting the cold output (engine exhaust) into the reservoir from which the heat pump (QTJ) is drawing--that is: the temperature of the exhaust isn't averaged with the atmosphere at point of contact with the heat pump.
Second, the atmosphere is heated by the sun.
Not only is the atmosphere big and capable of absorbing a huge amount of cold exhaust before your heat-engine-slash-heat-pump consumes the energy in its shared vessel and finally runs dry, but it's being fed energy from an external power source.
That external energy prevents the atmosphere from averaging its temperature out (in which case, it would already be at a temperature by which you can't run this machine). The heat from the sun is changing the entropy in the atmosphere, essentially playing the part of Maxwell's Demon--a thought experiment about exactly what I describe, with the mistake of not accounting for the work that the little cretin sitting on the gate expended to sort out hot particles from cold particles. The "demon" is being fed from the sun.
I've described nothing more than a Rube Goldberg machine that achieves solar power generation.
Whether you can build one is another matter; but the theory isn't totally-unsound, at least not for the reasons most engineers immediately cite.
Re:What happens in 15-20 years? (Score:4, Insightful)
In 25 years solar "panels" will be as cheap and flexible as plastic sheeting. Energy will be nearly free and we'll be struggling with who should be allowed to have children and deciding which grossly overpopulated areas need to "purged".
Re:What happens in 15-20 years? (Score:5, Interesting)
The largely overpopulated areas will be the same like today: ... feel free to add your selection.
Beijing, Mexico City, Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Los Angeles, New Dheli
Population growth on the planet will probbaly stop in 30 - 50 years, so no worries there.
Energy will never be free. The production might be close to free, perhaps you pay 1cent per kWh, however transport, gridstability, balancing power, reserve power, and simple things as metering snd billing: will always have significant costs.
So when we are close to free energy, the prices will drop by half, but not go doown to 1cent or less.
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Western population growth already has stopped long long ago.
Nothing to fix if you have no clue at all.
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Won't cheap panels combined with better/cheaper battery storage lead to a trend of just breaking grid ties and running standalone?
I think it's already somewhat practical now if you're willing to accept some limits on max current output, especially at night.
Re:What happens in 15-20 years? (Score:4, Informative)
Depends where you life.
In europe household battery storages are more and more connected into so called 'virtual power plants'.
They are used for balancing power snd reserve power.
That earns the owners money.
Going disconnected would make them lose that money.
In other words in the center of a city it makes no sense to go disconnected.
In a hut in a forrest up the mountains, perhaps it does.
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So stop metering and billing. Duh.
Re:What happens in 15-20 years? (Score:4, Insightful)
Gosh, if only Solar arrays were like coal, gas, and nuclear plants that require absolutely no maintenance, part replacement or waste disposal.
Oh wait.
Seriously, in 20 years, they can expand their system to cover increased demand, and if these cells fail, they can recycle the valuable metals and purchase new ones. You might as well be complaining that the sun could go out, or that the cleaner air they breathe lets them go outside so much they get skin cancer.
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Falling off is not the same thing as not working at all. In some installations, where you have space restrictions and power requirements; this will matter. In other locations (rural/solar farms?) where space is less critical; it won't matter so much. Why get rid of the old panels when you can add a single (newer/cheaper) panel and end up with more total capacity then before? Even users with space restrictions are likely to be able to sell their reduced output panels to someone who doesn't have that res
Re:What happens in 15-20 years? (Score:5, Informative)
Nothing. A well-made solar panel will last 40 years (there are some 40 year old solar panels still operating fine) and will probably last over 70 years: https://us.sunpower.com/sites/... [sunpower.com]
As opposed to coal plants that last forever. (Score:4, Insightful)
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"And nuclear plants have absolutely no expense involved in maintenance or refurbishment."
And they don't have to pay for insurance either, because they ain't got one because nobody will insure them.
Re:What happens in 15-20 years? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Basic Economics states if people have access to cheap power, their power consumption would increase, So they will probably have the same amount of panels, because they will be using more energy.
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There is not turning off your lights, Leaving your TV on. Buying appliances that have more power vs Energy Star Ratings. Getting bigger stuff...
Just like when Fuel Prices go down, people buy Large Cars and Trucks, when prices get high, they buy the smaller cars or ones that use less fuel.
In college we didn't have to pay (directly) for Heat or electricity. So we left our Desktop Computers on all the time, with the monitors playing fancy screen savers which looked cool. If in winter it was too hot in the
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Well, in europe people learned how to conserve power decades ago.
This window opening thing is frowned upon very severly.
I know no one who sold his car to by one which needs less fuel because the fuel price changed.
Anyway ... unless I get a new electricity consuming hobby, I hardly can imagine how I need/consume more.
The only thing would be a Sauna in the house ...
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Re:What happens in 15-20 years? (Score:5, Interesting)
Sorry, are you referring to solar or current power plants? Because everything you said can apply to either.
As a society, we already see drops in performance when parts aren't replaced or maintained. We already deal with sticker shock when we need to repair or replace everything from turbine blades to scrubbers to pistons that can fail for any number of different mechanical or chemical reasons. We already have to dispose of filters and other parts that are contaminated with toxic materials. None of this is new.
What is new, however, are the rapidly falling prices for solar installs, zero emissions during operation, less frequent maintenance, and the fact that it's looking like 15-20 years may have been a conservative estimate, since we're already seeing them lasting far longer than originally expected. Which isn't to say that they solve all of our problems, nor that they come with no new ones, but suggesting that we shouldn't use solar until we deal with the issues you listed—issues which we already face—is like saying that we shouldn't allow a drug that cures 50% of patients suffering from an otherwise terminal disease, because it doesn't save 100% of them.
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"When the performance of these things starts to drop off ..." ...their new lights, gadgets and appliances will need much less power, so the surplus to be sold is even higher.
Or you just do it like with a heating system, car, roof ...you replace it.
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Honestly, I don't understand photovoltaic installations. Parabolic dish collectors with a sterling engine were like 34% efficient and what in the hell is this [solarpower...online.com]?!
You can get higher efficiency off thermal because you can get 100% of the light (you know, thermal) as energy. The most-efficient sterling engine ever built hit 38.5% thermal efficiency or 77% of carnot. At 73% efficient light redirection, you're looking at over 28% total thermal efficiency.
The only way you're beating a 73% efficient reflector
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Right now, I have 26 2yr old "265W" panels. They should still put out at least 75% of their rated power in 25 years (those are the replacement warranty terms, they can lose 1% per year, but most don't lose that much, though the curve isn't linear)
I actually look forward to replacing a handful of them in 20 years or so, with the inexpensive ~400W panels that will likely exist by then, which will bring the system back up over the capacity that I have now. That's if I haven't already expanded the system by t
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***Longer timelines. ***** MUCH LONGER****
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nuclear-power-plant-aging-reactor-replacement-/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Producing energy since September 1969,
Re:What happens in 15-20 years? (Score:5, Funny)
Nuclear plants are magical. Hell, Fukushima's been closed since 2011 and it's still producing energy in the form of radiation.
http://www.pnas.org/content/ea... [pnas.org]
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But not **enough**. After all, Godzilla hasn't risen from Tokyo Bay. . . .
Re:What happens in 15-20 years? (Score:5, Informative)
No they are not projected to last 50 years at full or even majority output.
http://www.engineering.com/ElectronicsDesign/ElectronicsDesignArticles/ArticleID/7475/What-Is-the-Lifespan-of-a-Solar-Panel.aspx
http://energyinformative.org/lifespan-solar-panels/
Re:What happens in 15-20 years? (Score:5, Funny)
Looks like both charts project majority output in 50 years.
100%-(.05%*50)=75%
or 100%-(20%*2)=60%
Your point is stronger if you use words like "dramatic reduction" or "just over half of the output remaining" or you don't link to things that contradict what you say as support.
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Agreed, that's why I put it in quotations.
btw
If dRumpF says fake news, he thinks it makes him look bad and is in denial. It is probably also not fake.
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I agree with what you're saying.
I must be deeply misunderstanding your sig, which is what I responding to there. Oh! you're saying it is 99% likely to be true news, not fake. I thought you were saying it was 99% likely he was correct in calling it fake news.
Re:What happens in 15-20 years? (Score:5, Informative)
The two references you provide indicate that a reasonable , even conservative estimate is about 0.5% degradation per year. After 50 years that leaves 78% of initial output. Pretty good I'd say!
SB
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Silicon is a *metal*. Sand is a silicate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon
There's an OSHA limit for silicon particle exposure at the end of the article but it doesn't seem particularly toxic.
The manufacturing process for panels reportedly uses chemicals that are quite toxic, however.
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Actually Solar would be beneficial, during a disaster. Solar energy is wonderful because it is Energy that each home user can produce themselves without the need of a major infrastructure.
Normally when these disasters take place Damage isn't uniformed. However for the Electric Grid system if something hits the grid, power will go out for an area much larger then the area affected. So today a storm that may had damaged a dozen homes, would cause a community to be out of power. Vs. if everyone had solar, o
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Where I live, electric power is still too cheap (on the order of $0.11/KWH) to economically justify a private solar installation. If the PV panels drop another 50% in price that will change (for me, anyway). If we can figure out how to account for total lifetime system costs for all energy production solutions and charge accordingly, the current PV panel cost might work economically.
Re: What happens in 15-20 years? (Score:3)
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Actually not as much as you would think. All most all of the technology has been developed. The oil industry has been poking holes in the bottom of the ocean for 30+ years. They have gotten really good at it. The only technology that I'm not sure has come to maturity is the storage part.
The term is called glassfication. Basically the waste is mixed in with slag and turned in to glass. This could be ground up and pumped in to the holes along with a binding agent.
An if you don't want to poke more h
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You are correct. I should have previewed that before I posted it.
I should have said is you grind up the waste then you mix it for the glassifictaion process. I would imagine that you want to keep the final product small, say the size of a marble so it can be easily mixed with a medium for pumping. I wonder if ordinary concrete would work for this part of the process.
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"Roads are paid for by the end-user in the form of a gasoline tax."
'The tax was last raised in 1993 and is not indexed to inflation. Total inflation from 1993 until 2015 was 64.6 percent.'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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"Roads are paid for by the end-user in the form of a gasoline tax."
Factually wrong. No they are not for the large bulk of costs. https://taxfoundation.org/gaso... [taxfoundation.org]. Annnd that is for the current state, The massive build out of the road system was primarily funded by general tax liabilities.
I suppose we could have defeated the Nazis with horse-drawn carriages...."
Nope. Note I do think subsidies are bad when done right, I just brought up that point to illustrate how "free market" crusaders are just comp
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Re:Love how they borrow tech... (Score:5, Informative)
Is is it true that it still takes more energy to fab the silicon, make the frames, and deploy the panels than they ever get back in their operational lifetime?
Although I'm sure Exxon would like that misinformation to stay popular, that question was put to rest [acs.org] long ago, both in terms of the panels themselves and the PV industry as a whole. And that's reaching back to pay for panel development when production was inefficient.
Video if you don't like reading [youtube.com].
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Even if that was true, which it ISN'T, they would STILL make economic sense as a sort of battery that last 30+ years. You could manufacture them near a hydro plant or nuclear plant and ship them.
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Is is it true that it still takes more energy to fab the silicon, make the frames, and deploy the panels than they ever get back in their operational lifetime?
It's called embedded (or embodied) energy. It's not true, unless there's an incredibly inefficient production/distribution method being used somewhere. Even if it were true, it would still make sense to produce them using other renewable energy types (i.e. hydro, geothermal) and use them where they were replacing non-renewables (though still not ideal).
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Transportation sector:
- Cars: battery tech is improving exponentially at the moment, and it's no longer a question of how, but how soon
- Trucks: short range trucks are going to appear in a couple of years, long range are probably not as far off as you might think as people need to take breaks anyway
- Trains: batteries + electrification of some tracks - I've seen an analysis for passenger trains, and it's viable today, some train manufacturers are already looking into it
- Planes: You can produce renewable je
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Existing battery tech is good enough for 66% of the cars. It is merely a question of cost.
Deliver vans and mail vans and school buses can switch to battery with existing technology. Again a question of cost
Price break through is what we need now, for cars and delivery vans. And long range fleet trucks will be next with battery swaps. Again price, not range, not new tech.
Re:A great start... (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually wind and solar are over 5% of average power supply now and growing exponentially, with large double digit year-on-year percentages. And wind is already well over 10% of power in Europe.
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Solar is not a fuel per se, but is the exploitation of an energy source just as any other system that helps us do work. The original energy generation just takes place outside of the system, unlike (for example) combustion-based energy production where the system must first combust a fuel, then capture the energy that is generated.
Wind power, wave power, and standard hydro-electric power also rely on exploiting energy generated outside of the system. Excluding forms of energy capture/exploitation that do
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Next you'll be telling me Keebler cookes are not baked by little elves in a hollow tree.
Regulation of solar D production (Score:2)
You ARE aware that being [one who nigs] has nothing to do with whether you're black or white-skinned, right?
Correct. Skin color differences exist primarily to regulate solar-powered production of Vitamin D based on the latitude in which one's ancestors dwelt.
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Oh, it's grimmer than that. The father was first put in jail as a young man. Gaining a felony record and never having a chance at a regular life.
Meanwhile, the white kid wasn't even stopped, and if he had been stopped, would not have been searched, have been let off with a warning, or if he had actually have been arrested would have been given a deferred sentence (because he had a bright future), and finally if he had actually been sentenced- it would have been 50% to 90% lighter than the sentence given t
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"What are you going to do with the HAZARDOUS materials associated with the panels"
The same things as with the nuclear waste. Bury them for 184000 years.