6 ms·
3D Solar towers boost electricity production by around 50%
- constantcrying 1y ago>Tall skyscrapers can hold significantly more people on a small footprint, so why not apply that thinking to solar panels as well? This is not a good analogy and seems to misunderstand the purpose of the arrangement.
- jqpabc123 1y agoMore kwh on a small footprint?
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- BobaFloutist 1y agoSo, people take up volume, which is a cubic function, whereas solar panels take up surface area, which is a square function. But on top of that, though they might kvetch, people can be in a shadow and still be reasonably in a dwelling. If you started making a field of solar towers, they'd start casting shade on each other and reduce the efficiency. Which isn't to say that there would be zero marginal additional kwh/sqft, but that you'd get dramatically diminishing returns the less you spaced out the towers, which I think happens slower for people.
- mrsvanwinkle 1y ago+1 for kvetch
- jqpabc123 1y agoTexas-based Janta Power --- as low as $0.05/kWh compared to a global average of about $0.15/kWh. The solar revolution has definitely arrived when even oil soaked Texas is on board. At this rate, it will only takes a few decades for the USA to catch China. https://electrek.co/2025/09/02/h1-2025-china-installs-more-solar-than-rest-of-the-world-combined/ https://electrek.co/2025/09/02/h1-2025-china-installs-more-s... It's a sad thing to say but to see the future, look to China, not the USA.
- noir_lord 1y ago> The solar revolution Made me chuckle since the panels revolve to track the sun.
- thelastgallon 1y ago>At this rate, it will only takes a few decades for the USA to catch China. Where will China be in a few decades?
- jqpabc123 1y agoManufacturing most of the world's goods using automation and cheap power. https://futurism.com/robots-and-machines/western-executives-shaken-visiting-china https://futurism.com/robots-and-machines/western-executives-...
- thelastgallon 1y agoYes! Everyone forgets about the super cheap power in US and so many people complaining how their electricity bills are going to zero!
- MisterTea 1y agoI wonder what the people in China will be doing then.
- jqpabc123 1y agoTroubleshooting robots, developing super intelligence, working to further economic hegemony over western countries. I wonder what the people in the USA will be doing then? Still waiting for tariff payments from China?
- MisterTea 1y agoSo all 1.4+ billion people will be employed doing all that work. Riiiiight...
- aitchnyu 1y agoPanels are becoming as cheap as the dirt from whence they came so owners of big plots spend the least welder-hours propping them off the ground. Would this make sense for airports?
- MisterTea 1y ago"Uh, control, we cant see the ground because there is a massive blinding glare coming from what appears to be a giant field of mirrors with a landing strip in the middle."
- thelastgallon 1y agoMatte solar panels like roads instead of glossy?
- jryb 1y agoI don’t understand how this achieves a higher density. Won’t taller towers cast larger shadows, thus requiring towers to be spaced further apart?
- jqpabc123 1y agoThese are not just taller. They also rotate to track the sun --- makes them much more efficient. The increased "density" is measured in kwh per acre --- and the increased efficiency figures into this.