4 ms·

Still feel adding solar to rooftops is better - just in terms of space utilized - than these giant solar farms..

by mpg33 10y ago

hahla 10y ago
That wouldn't really work in India, as rooftops are flat and utilized as living space.
- sandos 10y ago
  You actually see an example of just that in this video! They built the panels as an extra roof above the rooftop, giving a shaded area for some gardening.
audunw 10y ago
Not really, there is plenty of land which is not suitable for other things. The solar power to cover all the worlds need could fit in a large desert. And it's much cheaper and easier to install a ton of panels at once, then one and one on rooftops with varying size and design. It' also easier and cheaper to keep them clean. But one does not rule out the other. The world should probably invest massively in both kinds of solar, since solar at rooftops with battery storage can help reduce the burden on the grid (especially when people start to need electricity to charge cars).
dx034 10y ago
Large parts of both India and China are covered by deserts where you can build huge wind farm and photo-voltaic capacity without disturbing anyone. Centralised areas make more sense in terms of maintenance, so building one plant per village could make much more sense than putting everything on roof tops
- fooker 10y ago
  India has about 1/10th the desert area as the US.
CydeWeys 10y ago
The scale (and thus cost efficiency) is completely different. It's way easier and cheaper to build a given amount of capacity in a single massive installation than spread out across 200,000 different roofs.
- Lagged2Death 10y ago
  It's way easier and cheaper to build a given amount of capacity in a single massive installation... This is, IMHO, why we should make it a priority to put PV on large commercial / industrial / institutional buildings. Double use of land, serious economies of scale, a maintenance organization already accustomed to dealing with rooftop infrastructure, and a ready customer for the produced energy (which means storage, transmission, and buy-back schemes may not be necessary at all) all together. Like this: http://www.dlrgroup.com/work/mandalay-bay-solar-array/ http://www.dlrgroup.com/work/mandalay-bay-solar-array/
  - CydeWeys 10y ago
    That's crazy that, even in sunny Las Vegas, that installation only supplies 20% of the total electricity that Mandalay Bay uses. It takes some serious power to run a hotel/casino/venue, apparently. Or maybe it's just the number of floors. My parents' rooftop solar installation covers about 100% of their annual usage. But it's a two story house with a basement. Mandalay Bay is significantly taller on average.
swatkat 10y ago
Rooftop solar programs have been launched by electricity providers in a few Indian states[1][2][3]. They offer incentives like subsidy/discounts in electricity bill if a house has solar energy. [1] https://gpcl.gujarat.gov.in/showpage.aspx?contentid=110 https://gpcl.gujarat.gov.in/showpage.aspx?contentid=110 [2] http://bescom.org/en/solar-roof/ http://bescom.org/en/solar-roof/ [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jawaharlal_Nehru_National_Solar_Mission https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jawaharlal_Nehru_National_Sola...

Still feel adding solar to rooftops is better - just in terms of space utilized - than these giant solar farms..

by mpg33 10y ago

Still feel adding solar to rooftops is better - just in terms of space utilized - than these giant solar farms..

hahla 10y ago

That wouldn't really work in India, as rooftops are flat and utilized as living space.

sandos 10y ago
You actually see an example of just that in this video! They built the panels as an extra roof above the rooftop, giving a shaded area for some gardening.

audunw 10y ago

Not really, there is plenty of land which is not suitable for other things. The solar power to cover all the worlds need could fit in a large desert. And it's much cheaper and easier to install a ton of panels at once, then one and one on rooftops with varying size and design. It' also easier and cheaper to keep them clean. But one does not rule out the other. The world should probably invest massively in both kinds of solar, since solar at rooftops with battery storage can help reduce the burden on the grid (especially when people start to need electricity to charge cars).

dx034 10y ago

Large parts of both India and China are covered by deserts where you can build huge wind farm and photo-voltaic capacity without disturbing anyone. Centralised areas make more sense in terms of maintenance, so building one plant per village could make much more sense than putting everything on roof tops

fooker 10y ago
India has about 1/10th the desert area as the US.

CydeWeys 10y ago

The scale (and thus cost efficiency) is completely different. It's way easier and cheaper to build a given amount of capacity in a single massive installation than spread out across 200,000 different roofs.

Lagged2Death 10y ago
It's way easier and cheaper to build a given amount of capacity in a single massive installation... This is, IMHO, why we should make it a priority to put PV on large commercial / industrial / institutional buildings. Double use of land, serious economies of scale, a maintenance organization already accustomed to dealing with rooftop infrastructure, and a ready customer for the produced energy (which means storage, transmission, and buy-back schemes may not be necessary at all) all together. Like this: http://www.dlrgroup.com/work/mandalay-bay-solar-array/ http://www.dlrgroup.com/work/mandalay-bay-solar-array/
- CydeWeys 10y ago
  That's crazy that, even in sunny Las Vegas, that installation only supplies 20% of the total electricity that Mandalay Bay uses. It takes some serious power to run a hotel/casino/venue, apparently. Or maybe it's just the number of floors. My parents' rooftop solar installation covers about 100% of their annual usage. But it's a two story house with a basement. Mandalay Bay is significantly taller on average.

swatkat 10y ago

Rooftop solar programs have been launched by electricity providers in a few Indian states[1][2][3]. They offer incentives like subsidy/discounts in electricity bill if a house has solar energy. [1] https://gpcl.gujarat.gov.in/showpage.aspx?contentid=110 https://gpcl.gujarat.gov.in/showpage.aspx?contentid=110 [2] http://bescom.org/en/solar-roof/ http://bescom.org/en/solar-roof/ [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jawaharlal_Nehru_National_Solar_Mission https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jawaharlal_Nehru_National_Sola...