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I think that they simply don't want to tear down the dishes because they will be expensive to rebuild, so putting solar panels on them is a way to get some mone
by SiempreViernes 3y ago
I think that they simply don't want to tear down the dishes because they will be expensive to rebuild, so putting solar panels on them is a way to get some money out of the dish that will at least cover maintenance of the structure.
Then when in the future they need more capacity they can put in better receivers and motors quickly.
- duxup 3y agoGot it, might be "good enough while it's working" and can reconsider later.
- usrusr 3y agoThe article does not mention it (or I did not find it skimming), but I'd consider it safe to assume that there's also a bit of a conservation angle: once a piece of alpine engineering is established as part of the landscape, people seem to like it a lot. Even the very same people who would pick up torch and pitchfork against anything new I think. Imagine the outrage a proposal to return the slopes of the 48 Stelvio hairpins back to their natural state, or the Landwasser viaduct, or any of the Kaprun dams. As much outrage as a proposal to install new heliostats on yet untouched rocks would get, or perhaps even more. Those dishes are monuments to what in hindsight is called the Space Age and while they'd probably fail to qualify for conservation for conservation's sake alone, giving them a second career as heliostats seems like a very pragmatic way too keep them, and keep them serviced even.
- RajT88 3y agoPlus, you never know when you might need a giant satellite dish!