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The only people pushing rooftop solar are the ones who haven't thought about it very hard. Roofs are expensive. We build them to A) hold up the most likely load
by idiotsecant 2y ago
The only people pushing rooftop solar are the ones who haven't thought about it very hard. Roofs are expensive. We build them to A) hold up the most likely loads and B) keep our water. Putting a bunch of solar panels on them makes them worse at both, especially when we have a lot of unused land. I mean monumental amounts.
- bruce511 2y agoI presume you mean "B) keep our water off"? I guess the viability of roofs depend on the construction techniques in your area. In my experience roof's here have plenty of extra load availability, and I'm not sure what effect the panels would have on water. In my area something like 5GW of solar has been installed on rooftops, and that has moved the needle. And of course land availability varies a lot by country. YMMV.
- idiotsecant 2y agoGeez yes I meant keep out water but I'm on mobile and not very careful! Yes, if we're talking about Hong Kong or somewhere with extremely high urbanization maybe the calculus is different, but that's a political issue more than a technical one. Every city on earth has land not utilized for living or heavy ag within a very reasonable distance.