5 ms·

"Coal," Don't mix coal... with wind and solar. Coal releases proportional amounts of carbon dioxide when used to generate power. On the other hand, wind and s

"Coal," Don't mix coal... with wind and solar. Coal releases proportional amounts of carbon dioxide when used to generate power. On the other hand, wind and solar release fixed amounts of carbon dioxide (during construction and transport) then generate energy C02 free.

davrosthedalek 10y ago
..except for maintenance. Does anybody have up-to-date numbers how long hydro/solar/wind have to run to recoup the energy used in production? For a while, Solar was essentially "let's import energy from Asia in the form of pretty sand", but I think this has changed.
- bildung 10y ago
  > For a while, Solar was essentially "let's import energy from Asia in the form of pretty sand", but I think this has changed. Considering the fact that efficient pv panels need less than 4% of their lifetime output for production (if in service 25 years (most panels last up to 40 years)), that must have been the late 70s or so. You were probably remembering that 2010 study talking about the rapidly growing solar industry as a whole becoming net producers of energy, e.g. current industry energy input is now lower than current running PV output (http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/april/pv-net-energy-040213.html http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/april/pv-net-energy-04021...). But that doesn't say much about net energy production per panel over the panel's lifetime, e.g. if the PV industry would disappear this very moment, existing PV installations would still produce energy for decades.
  - davrosthedalek 10y ago
    The numbers I heard had a 50% replacement/failure rate or so after 10 years. However, that might have been related to the roof installations in Germany.
- bootload 10y ago
  "..except for maintenance." Good point. Q. Would the amount of energy generated by a solar/wind system outstrip energy used to maintain?

5 ms·

"Coal," Don't mix coal... with wind and solar. Coal releases proportional amounts of carbon dioxide when used to generate power. On the other hand, wind and s

by bootload 10y ago

davrosthedalek 10y ago
..except for maintenance. Does anybody have up-to-date numbers how long hydro/solar/wind have to run to recoup the energy used in production? For a while, Solar was essentially "let's import energy from Asia in the form of pretty sand", but I think this has changed.
- bildung 10y ago
  > For a while, Solar was essentially "let's import energy from Asia in the form of pretty sand", but I think this has changed. Considering the fact that efficient pv panels need less than 4% of their lifetime output for production (if in service 25 years (most panels last up to 40 years)), that must have been the late 70s or so. You were probably remembering that 2010 study talking about the rapidly growing solar industry as a whole becoming net producers of energy, e.g. current industry energy input is now lower than current running PV output (http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/april/pv-net-energy-040213.html http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/april/pv-net-energy-04021...). But that doesn't say much about net energy production per panel over the panel's lifetime, e.g. if the PV industry would disappear this very moment, existing PV installations would still produce energy for decades.
  - davrosthedalek 10y ago
    The numbers I heard had a 50% replacement/failure rate or so after 10 years. However, that might have been related to the roof installations in Germany.
- bootload 10y ago
  "..except for maintenance." Good point. Q. Would the amount of energy generated by a solar/wind system outstrip energy used to maintain?