How much of our energy use could be provided by roof-mounted solar? 10%? Read the article for a rigorous estimate.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/02/a-solar-panel-on-every-roof-in-the-us-here-are-the-numbers/
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LEGO Americana Roadshow: Building Across America I just checked out this traveling exhibition from LEGO and was quite impressed. The scale ... -
Merry Christmas, everyone!
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When we let politics trump science, people are needlessly put in harm's way. http://arstechnica.com/science/2017/01/self-censoring-fears...
I would really like to see more progress with the thin film PV technology. I am not inclined to want to punch holes in my metal roof and ruin its lifetime warrantee, if I could just glue panels to it.
ReplyDelete10% means it amortizes in a couple years. well worth it.
ReplyDeleteI thought Elon already figured this out, it was 100%
ReplyDeleteIn my neck of the woods, individual houses need less than 40% of their roof space in currently available PV cells to offset their electricity needs. It gets more complicated when you look at apartments, but if every house was producing roughly 250% of its needs, that'd make up for a lot of apartments.
ReplyDeleteGiven the rapid technological progress, any panel is obsolete the moment it's installed. This makes me wonder what the right time to act is.
ReplyDeleteSteve S: given that they'll last 30 years, I'm not sure that technological obsolescence is a problem. (And having been involved with designing the cell-to-power-line conversion electronics, I can say that there isn't enough improvement even possible in that realm to worry about: you'll save more power in the time you have them installed than you'll lose waiting for better electronics, which barring a major advance is also the case for the solar panels themselves.)
ReplyDeleteThe article says 40%, not 10%.
ReplyDeleteSo I've been mapping a solar project for the past month and a half. The roof space is easy enough, especially in suburbia. The real struggle comes in from some of the legal and practical coordination challenges.
ReplyDeleteThere's a huge assumption behind the implications of that study: that all of the generated electricity can somehow be actually used during the daylight hours. If everyone in some neighbourhood is producing power but they're all at work and not using much/any of it at home, then either they all need big battery banks, or the neighbourhood needs a huge battery bank, or many things have to be changed to get that power back out safely onto the main grid and re-distributed to places where it can be used at that very moment.
ReplyDeleteGreg A. Woods I think that's kind of the point though. We have a potential energy source available, but it will take investment to make it viable, so we need to run the numbers to see if it is financially viable to take that action before putting it into place.
ReplyDelete"This could bring huge benefits to areas such as motor racing which would gain obvious benefits from being able to push the performance limits, but it also creates massive opportunities for consumers and energy storage providers. Faster charging as always comes at the expense of overall battery life but many consumers would welcome the ability to charge a vehicle battery quickly when short journey times are required and then to switch to standard charge periods at other times. Having that flexibility in charging strategies might even/further down the line help consumers benefit from financial incentives from power companies seeking to balance grid supplies using vehicles connected to the grid."
ReplyDeletesciencedaily.com - www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180216110525.htm