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Solar panels can still generate year round even when cloudy. It’s not as efficient sure but it’s not useless. That’s why you have a blend of renewables.

• modo_mario 2y ago
  What renewable starts to produce more towards the winter to compensate for this especially since that's when energy consumption also rises?
  • butlike 2y ago
    Could it be possible to harness the weight of the snowfall, ice, or something else to power a turbine?
  • layer8 2y ago
    Luckily it’s summer in one hemisphere when it’s winter in the other. Unfortunately a global grid seems infeasible in the foreseeable future.
• chickenbig 2y ago
  > It’s not as efficient sure but it’s not useless. In the UK I've seen a system which produced 0.5kWh/day in mid-winter and 35kWh/day in summer. That kind of variation is hard to overbuild for. > That’s why you have a blend of renewables. Yes, we then have to build wind turbines, plenty of under-utilised transmission (because wind is in the wrong place), methane CCGT/OCGT backup (and they need to receive capacity payments to keep them in business) and perhaps eventually electrolysers to convert excess electricity to H2 (which then have to operate at low utilisation). The overall system seems quite complicated and more complex than the first step of deploying cheap solar panels so save a bit of methane.