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There are not significant limitations to scale other than the usual economic reasons. There are competing uses of many reservoirs, however - likely recreational
by schimmy_changa 4y ago
There are not significant limitations to scale other than the usual economic reasons. There are competing uses of many reservoirs, however - likely recreational boaters would strongly oppose taking over large sections of reservoirs, so floating solar is more likely going to be located in practice near to the dams / in existing keep-out zones.
Yes, those claims are technically correct, in the same way that the claims we could power all of humanity's needs with a fraction of the sahara desert are also technically correct. In practice, competing needs for the water bodies and especially the cost of transmission lines / the lower cost of nearby desert land for many of the sites means that it's certainly an oversimplification.
- schimmy_changa 4y agoreally, the competition against cheap desert land is what makes the difference - that is why it really makes sense in places with limited land (Japan, South Korea, eastern China, coastal California, etc)