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>"There is no shortage of pasturage to site solar in." I don't believe you are taking into account just how much location and transmission distance matters for

>"There is no shortage of pasturage to site solar in." I don't believe you are taking into account just how much location and transmission distance matters for such projects.

ncmncm 4y ago
It does not, in fact, matter. If you have some transmission loss, you just add a few more panels.
- BitwiseFool 4y ago
  >"It does not, in fact, matter." What's your basis for this? Real-world power grids don't seem to be designed around transmission loss being a non-issue so long as they just 'generate more power' at the source.
  - ZeroGravitas 4y ago
    I think most real world grids are (or at least were) actually designed like this. Getting coal from a mine to a power station is a big task, so some grids are literally built around the locations of the coal. Hydro and nuclear have similar location needs. This has changed more recently with gas and renewables where as they get cheaper other factors start to dominate, but the grid was not originally set up for that kind of distributed load and needed some tweaks to adjust I believe.
  - ncmncm 4y ago
    Power at the source has never been as cheap as solar, and has always consumed extra operating expense to generate. Solar does not cost more each day it produces; you put up more panels and you get more power, day after day.
ZeroGravitas 4y ago
US government take on this: https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/solar-futures-study https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/solar-futures-study > Although land acquisition poses challenges, land availability does not constrain solar deployment in the scenarios. > In 2050, ground-based solar technologies require a maximum land area equivalent to 0.5% of the contiguous U.S. surface area, which could be met in numerous ways including use of disturbed or contaminated lands unsuitable for other uses. The maximum solar land area required is equivalent to less than 10% of potentially suitable disturbed lands, avoiding conflicts with high-value lands in current use. > Various approaches are available to mitigate local impacts or even enhance the value of land that hosts solar systems. Installing photovoltaic (PV) systems on water bodies, in farming or grazing areas, and in ways that enhance pollinator habitats are potential ways to enhance solar energy production while providing benefits such as lower water evaporation rates and higher agricultural yields. > Expanding rooftop PV could reduce solar land use. Almost 200 GW of rooftop PV are deployed in the decarbonization scenarios by 2050 (10%–20% of total solar deployment). However, the technical potential for U.S. rooftop PV is greater than 1,000 GW, and efforts to promote rooftop PV could increase deployment beyond the modeled level.
xt00 4y ago
At least in the US if you look at all of the long distance transmission lines, you could easily find huge areas next to the lines that are totally uninhabited to site a new solar installation plus the transformers etc to connect up to the grid there. The same helicopters they use to service the lines could likely be used to blow off the solar panels once a month when they get dust on them. Somebody should totally do a study of saying "ok here is one major transmission line going across Texas from this big power plant.. how much power does it deliver, and how large of a solar farm would be needed to switch that power over to solar.. " definitely need to figure out a widely deployable energy storage method for solar energy -- like using existing dam's to pump water back up into the reservoir type thing.
cogman10 4y ago
There is almost no major city in the continental US where you can't find open land and spaces ~30 miles away from the city center. Transmission distance matters when you are talking about sending power 1000s miles from the generation location. For that, you want something like HVDC. However, for anything else, HVAC is good enough.

>"There is no shortage of pasturage to site solar in." I don't believe you are taking into account just how much location and transmission distance matters for such projects.

ncmncm 4y ago

It does not, in fact, matter. If you have some transmission loss, you just add a few more panels.

BitwiseFool 4y ago
>"It does not, in fact, matter." What's your basis for this? Real-world power grids don't seem to be designed around transmission loss being a non-issue so long as they just 'generate more power' at the source.
- ZeroGravitas 4y ago
  I think most real world grids are (or at least were) actually designed like this. Getting coal from a mine to a power station is a big task, so some grids are literally built around the locations of the coal. Hydro and nuclear have similar location needs. This has changed more recently with gas and renewables where as they get cheaper other factors start to dominate, but the grid was not originally set up for that kind of distributed load and needed some tweaks to adjust I believe.
- ncmncm 4y ago
  Power at the source has never been as cheap as solar, and has always consumed extra operating expense to generate. Solar does not cost more each day it produces; you put up more panels and you get more power, day after day.

ZeroGravitas 4y ago

US government take on this: https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/solar-futures-study https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/solar-futures-study > Although land acquisition poses challenges, land availability does not constrain solar deployment in the scenarios. > In 2050, ground-based solar technologies require a maximum land area equivalent to 0.5% of the contiguous U.S. surface area, which could be met in numerous ways including use of disturbed or contaminated lands unsuitable for other uses. The maximum solar land area required is equivalent to less than 10% of potentially suitable disturbed lands, avoiding conflicts with high-value lands in current use. > Various approaches are available to mitigate local impacts or even enhance the value of land that hosts solar systems. Installing photovoltaic (PV) systems on water bodies, in farming or grazing areas, and in ways that enhance pollinator habitats are potential ways to enhance solar energy production while providing benefits such as lower water evaporation rates and higher agricultural yields. > Expanding rooftop PV could reduce solar land use. Almost 200 GW of rooftop PV are deployed in the decarbonization scenarios by 2050 (10%–20% of total solar deployment). However, the technical potential for U.S. rooftop PV is greater than 1,000 GW, and efforts to promote rooftop PV could increase deployment beyond the modeled level.

xt00 4y ago

At least in the US if you look at all of the long distance transmission lines, you could easily find huge areas next to the lines that are totally uninhabited to site a new solar installation plus the transformers etc to connect up to the grid there. The same helicopters they use to service the lines could likely be used to blow off the solar panels once a month when they get dust on them. Somebody should totally do a study of saying "ok here is one major transmission line going across Texas from this big power plant.. how much power does it deliver, and how large of a solar farm would be needed to switch that power over to solar.. " definitely need to figure out a widely deployable energy storage method for solar energy -- like using existing dam's to pump water back up into the reservoir type thing.

cogman10 4y ago

There is almost no major city in the continental US where you can't find open land and spaces ~30 miles away from the city center. Transmission distance matters when you are talking about sending power 1000s miles from the generation location. For that, you want something like HVDC. However, for anything else, HVAC is good enough.