4 ms·
Solar is cheap
by konschubert 3y ago
Solar is cheap
- grej 3y agoSolar is cheap when active, and the good news this is one of the cases where intermittency doesn't really matter. We should really explore more use of intermittent power for cases like this where the limited reliability of wind and solar is less significant.
- nwiswell 3y agoIt's still significant if it means that your desalination plant is only active 50% of the time, since it means you need twice the capacity.
- grej 3y agoTrue. This condition only holds in situations where the energy costs dominate the physical plant costs
- lopis 3y agoFortunately, water usage is correlated with sun intensity.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Groxx 3y agoIf solar was cheap enough, it would be used. In a handful of places, it is. In the rest, it's so much more expensive than alternatives that it's borderline insanity to use it. Like ice: ice is cheap in Antarctica! But importing Antarctic ice to a desert would be absurd.