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I'll never understand why people latch onto these kinds of solar "solutions" in search of problems. Like that solar roadways fiasco a decade or so ago. Just no
by ryanmcbride 3mo ago
I'll never understand why people latch onto these kinds of solar "solutions" in search of problems. Like that solar roadways fiasco a decade or so ago.
Just normal-ass solar is already safe proven and effective. Why do we need to remix it when there are still so many easy wins to be achieved?
- monegator 3mo agofriends of friends simply need all that sweet government grant money
- acdha 3mo agoYeah, I can understand putting solar on things when it lets them become standalone off-the-grid setups but for something like railroad track it’s just not that much space and the costs are so much higher. Except on the tightest urban lines, just putting rows of normal panels next to the tracks should be significantly more space with much easier engineering.
- ryanmcbride 3mo agoExactly. For example, I think the lifted solar panels that have been popping up over parking lots are a perfect win-win. Cars get shade, power gets generated, it's out of the way of most day-to-day threats, and if they have to do repairs, it's just blocking off part of a parking lot instead of a major thoroughfare. If there's a single downside I'm not sure what it is.
- parineum 3mo agoThe closest thing to a downside I can come up with is that, at least in CA, there's more than enough solar already. Adding solar to the grid without batteries included isn't really productive.
- acdha 3mo agoI think that’ll rebalance over time but one of the biggest questions I’d have is how to use all of the batteries people are driving around. A buddy shifted his car charging to work because they have a convenient setup with a bunch of solar panels and that seems like a good path to encourage going forward: let sunny day over production shift vehicle charging off of times where load would need to come from grid batteries, fossil, or wind.
- xnx 3mo agoWould be interesting if solar panel rows laid right on the ground could make sense for autonomous vehicle parking lots where cars can drive over the panels precisely enough to not crush them.
- tmtvl 3mo agoNot really. Solar panels laid flat on the ground are less efficient than solar panels raised above ground and angled to get more yield (if you're in the Northern hemisphere the Sun is never* in the North, vice versa for the South). * Midnight sun notwithstanding.
- xnx 3mo agoDefinitely, the tradeoff is that it is cheap/easy to install things on the ground. https://erthos.com/ https://erthos.com/ is testing that.
- ryanmcbride 3mo agoyes but things on the ground are exposed to significantly more dirt and critters than things suspended off the ground.
- dukeyukey 3mo agoPeople hate the idea of solar in currently-unused space. Even if that space is bare desert. So you can get a big PR boost if you propose "solar, but on a thing" (roadways, water, and now trains).
- ryanmcbride 3mo agoWhich is just odd to me because why are we holding one of the cleanest means of generating electricity to a higher standard than like, coal and oil? Why does solar have to have 0 footprint when everything else gets as much of a footprint as it wants? (I know the answer is profit)
- dukeyukey 3mo agoThat is not the answer (plenty of profit in solar), it's probably that society is literally older and so people don't like change as much.
- ryanmcbride 3mo agoI know there's profit in solar, but the game is rigged to favor oil and gas so that's still more profitable for the people who make the decisions.
- dukeyukey 3mo agoThis is bizarre to me, because the energy markets in my country (the UK) are bent to benefit solar and wind over all else. We banned oil and gas exploration, and even regulated out coal from the entire market. It's extremely hard to see how this benefits fossil fuel companies.
- ryanmcbride 3mo agomust be nice
- pydry 3mo ago
- RetroTechie 3mo ago> Like that solar roadways fiasco a decade or so ago. Should have many of the same drawbacks, with 2 big differences: 1. Trains not driving directly on the panels' surface (which makes solar roadways a bad idea in any case). And 2. Trains on their own track, so the 'road surface' conditions of the panels (rain, snow etc) don't matter safety-wise. That said: imho there's still so many spaces better suited to put solar panels, that between train tracks is among the last places I'd go for. Especially if it requires custom-design panels.
- silver_silver 3mo agoPeople have been convinced by energy company propaganda that solar still needs a trick or selling point other than protecting the environment. There’s widespread disinformation about cost and environmental impacts from the panels themselves.
- dzhiurgis 3mo ago> safe proven More like engineered and worked around to be safe (unless you are in Australia lol). 400v around people is unforgiving. Batteries catch fire occasionally too - a lot of places you are not allowed to install indoors.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- inigyou 3mo agoBecause they are people who make trains. The people who own farms think about making solar fields. The people who own roads think about making solar roadways. The peo who make trains think about making solar trains. All of these possibilities can be trialed in parallel by different people. It is the same reason that if asked to design a combination lock safe, you would probably reach for a microcontroller and a keypad instead of a bucket of gears, because you are (I presume) a software person and the hardware people can try the other way.