5 ms·

"Only" Looks like a giant part of the value is that it can be shipped in, dropped on the ground on site, turned on overnight, and it only takes up the footprin

"Only" Looks like a giant part of the value is that it can be shipped in, dropped on the ground on site, turned on overnight, and it only takes up the footprint of a shipping container. If you have 24 hrs to find an empty football field within a powercable's distance of what you're trying to power, and then fill it with solar panels and batteries, you're gonna have a bad day.

nehal3m 1y ago
If you ship in a stack of panels, inverters and cables, sure. But maybe you could be a little smarter about it, like a container with all the electronics (inverters, batteries, management) and a bunch of folded, pre-cabled panels that you can pull out across a field. If you bring a couple of those covering a field in a few hours shouldn't be that hard and could be ready for use instantly provided the batteries are charged at delivery.
- generalizations 1y ago
  You also have to make sure there's an empty football field onsite. That's a much harder ask than dropping a shipping container in a couple of parking spots.
  - supportengineer 1y ago
    That is a solved problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BLU-82 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BLU-82
    - generalizations 1y ago
      Not sure if you’re serious. Is this something you’re proposing be used in an urban environment? Using a bomb to flatten the nearby trees/debris/buildings/people to make way for solar panels strikes me as not preferable to a clean standalone box providing a MW of power for 5 years at a time. Also the environment would thank you for choosing nuclear over this.
      - yongjik 1y ago
        I'm pretty sure GP is joking ...
        generalizations 1y ago
        TBH the line between extremism & satire can be very, very thin.
      - LargoLasskhyfv 1y ago
        What urban environment? Isn't this about to be able being deployed somewhere way out there? Where diesel is impractical because of logistics? In which urban environment that would be the case? And wouldn't that environment have to be flattened, torn down, and rebuilt to be economically viable again, anyway?
      - Voultapher 1y ago
        Blowing up the home of birds and countless other species, yeah ok. Blowing up the the home of humans that can be warned and evacuated effectively, you must be kidding right!?! I get that you don't like the idea in general, no matter who it is dropped on, but take a step back and examine your reaction.
        generalizations 1y ago
        Wait are you seriously equating the home destruction of birds and humans? You’re trying to call me out for seeing those as not morally equal? Dude, take a step back and examine your entire system of ethics.
        Voultapher 1y ago
        Yes, I'm calling you a human supremacist [1]. There are plenty of examples of things that are not equal like skin color or gender and yet we - I assume you are not racist or sexist - try to treat equal. Drawing a hard line in the sand at human and everything else seems well ... really an Orangutan and a Human are so different that they deserve completely different rights, what about whales that have languages likely as complex or more complex than humans? Don't get me wrong I don't believe a cricket has the same emotional reasoning capabilities as a human. But it strikes me as very human to define in-groups people like you and people or beings other than you and using that as justification to do horrible things to them. [1] https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2024/08/mm-12-human-supremacy/ https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2024/08/mm-12-human-supremacy/
- djfobbz 1y ago
  Are you're seriously comparing a few containers of fold-out solar panels and batteries to a portable nuclear reactor? Let's do the math: To match even a 1MW reactor, you'd need 2,000+ panels, inverters, batteries, mounting, and approx. 120-150 man-days of labor...and that's with pre-cabled gear. You're still looking at 8+ containers, a full crew, and a full 10-14 days to deploy, not "a few hours." A nuclear microreactor doesn't need 54,000sqft of land or weather-dependent storage. Nice idea for a solar camp but not a replacement for a compact nuclear source.
  - supportengineer 1y ago
    What if robots/drones/automation was doing the deployment?
    - generalizations 1y ago
      You’ll need some peacekeeper drones, too - gotta keep the people from coming back after you evict them to make space for the solar panel fields!
  - hinkley 1y ago
    Let’s not pretend to be offended that someone else is making up an unfair scenario, as if you guys didn’t already make one up. Nobody’s dropping off a nuclear fucking reactor in the middle of a disaster area on six hours’ notice in any universe other than the bizarro one invented by their PR firm. You’re maybe running water desalination for an island that has known for years they want an alternative to shipping in diesel, or you’re shipping diesel generators to a disaster area because the Red Cross has a stack of them in a warehouse ready to go. Or you’re some hyperscaler data center hoping to not have to maintain fifteen generators onsite for you eight server rooms (8 + 4 + 2 + 1 = 15), and those could potentially be replaced with battery systems or gas turbines. And again, on six months or more of notice. If someone had an easy non-snake-oil nuclear solution we would be using it already. A realistic person would assume incremental improvements in portable nuclear over the next twenty years, not an overnight success.
    - 1y ago
- denkmoon 1y ago
  the sun doesn't shine at the poles 6 months of the year. it usually doesn't shine underground or deep underwater. etc. In places solar panels make sense they would certainly be used, but that's not everywhere.
  - ViewTrick1002 1y ago
    In Svalbard they have trouble retaining the skills to even run a large scale diesel. Now try foisting a nuclear reactor on them. https://www.spitsbergen-svalbard.com/2024/04/09/longyearbyen-has-got-the-power.html https://www.spitsbergen-svalbard.com/2024/04/09/longyearbyen...
supportengineer 1y ago
I can imagine a Falcon 9 dropping off an automated package that unrolls/inflates the solar panels. Security would be provided by even more drones.
- generalizations 1y ago
  Still need a place to unroll them. Unless you have a football field of empty space in that falcon 9, too.
  - LargoLasskhyfv 1y ago
    The falcon can level the field with its landing blast.
    - generalizations 1y ago
      Touché

nehal3m 1y ago

If you ship in a stack of panels, inverters and cables, sure. But maybe you could be a little smarter about it, like a container with all the electronics (inverters, batteries, management) and a bunch of folded, pre-cabled panels that you can pull out across a field. If you bring a couple of those covering a field in a few hours shouldn't be that hard and could be ready for use instantly provided the batteries are charged at delivery.

generalizations 1y ago
You also have to make sure there's an empty football field onsite. That's a much harder ask than dropping a shipping container in a couple of parking spots.
- supportengineer 1y ago
  That is a solved problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BLU-82 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BLU-82
  - generalizations 1y ago
    Not sure if you’re serious. Is this something you’re proposing be used in an urban environment? Using a bomb to flatten the nearby trees/debris/buildings/people to make way for solar panels strikes me as not preferable to a clean standalone box providing a MW of power for 5 years at a time. Also the environment would thank you for choosing nuclear over this.
    - yongjik 1y ago
      I'm pretty sure GP is joking ...
      - generalizations 1y ago
        TBH the line between extremism & satire can be very, very thin.
    - LargoLasskhyfv 1y ago
      What urban environment? Isn't this about to be able being deployed somewhere way out there? Where diesel is impractical because of logistics? In which urban environment that would be the case? And wouldn't that environment have to be flattened, torn down, and rebuilt to be economically viable again, anyway?
    - Voultapher 1y ago
      Blowing up the home of birds and countless other species, yeah ok. Blowing up the the home of humans that can be warned and evacuated effectively, you must be kidding right!?! I get that you don't like the idea in general, no matter who it is dropped on, but take a step back and examine your reaction.
      - generalizations 1y ago
        Wait are you seriously equating the home destruction of birds and humans? You’re trying to call me out for seeing those as not morally equal? Dude, take a step back and examine your entire system of ethics.
        Voultapher 1y ago
        Yes, I'm calling you a human supremacist [1]. There are plenty of examples of things that are not equal like skin color or gender and yet we - I assume you are not racist or sexist - try to treat equal. Drawing a hard line in the sand at human and everything else seems well ... really an Orangutan and a Human are so different that they deserve completely different rights, what about whales that have languages likely as complex or more complex than humans? Don't get me wrong I don't believe a cricket has the same emotional reasoning capabilities as a human. But it strikes me as very human to define in-groups people like you and people or beings other than you and using that as justification to do horrible things to them. [1] https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2024/08/mm-12-human-supremacy/ https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2024/08/mm-12-human-supremacy/
djfobbz 1y ago
Are you're seriously comparing a few containers of fold-out solar panels and batteries to a portable nuclear reactor? Let's do the math: To match even a 1MW reactor, you'd need 2,000+ panels, inverters, batteries, mounting, and approx. 120-150 man-days of labor...and that's with pre-cabled gear. You're still looking at 8+ containers, a full crew, and a full 10-14 days to deploy, not "a few hours." A nuclear microreactor doesn't need 54,000sqft of land or weather-dependent storage. Nice idea for a solar camp but not a replacement for a compact nuclear source.
- supportengineer 1y ago
  What if robots/drones/automation was doing the deployment?
  - generalizations 1y ago
    You’ll need some peacekeeper drones, too - gotta keep the people from coming back after you evict them to make space for the solar panel fields!
- hinkley 1y ago
  Let’s not pretend to be offended that someone else is making up an unfair scenario, as if you guys didn’t already make one up. Nobody’s dropping off a nuclear fucking reactor in the middle of a disaster area on six hours’ notice in any universe other than the bizarro one invented by their PR firm. You’re maybe running water desalination for an island that has known for years they want an alternative to shipping in diesel, or you’re shipping diesel generators to a disaster area because the Red Cross has a stack of them in a warehouse ready to go. Or you’re some hyperscaler data center hoping to not have to maintain fifteen generators onsite for you eight server rooms (8 + 4 + 2 + 1 = 15), and those could potentially be replaced with battery systems or gas turbines. And again, on six months or more of notice. If someone had an easy non-snake-oil nuclear solution we would be using it already. A realistic person would assume incremental improvements in portable nuclear over the next twenty years, not an overnight success.
  - 1y ago
denkmoon 1y ago
the sun doesn't shine at the poles 6 months of the year. it usually doesn't shine underground or deep underwater. etc. In places solar panels make sense they would certainly be used, but that's not everywhere.
- ViewTrick1002 1y ago
  In Svalbard they have trouble retaining the skills to even run a large scale diesel. Now try foisting a nuclear reactor on them. https://www.spitsbergen-svalbard.com/2024/04/09/longyearbyen-has-got-the-power.html https://www.spitsbergen-svalbard.com/2024/04/09/longyearbyen...

supportengineer 1y ago

I can imagine a Falcon 9 dropping off an automated package that unrolls/inflates the solar panels. Security would be provided by even more drones.

generalizations 1y ago
Still need a place to unroll them. Unless you have a football field of empty space in that falcon 9, too.
- LargoLasskhyfv 1y ago
  The falcon can level the field with its landing blast.
  - generalizations 1y ago
    Touché