Submitted by CurseMeKilt t3_1151zwi in UpliftingNews
Comments
Totaliasim t1_j8zq4c1 wrote
All southern sunny states should be building solar. Up here in the real biggest state solar panels are a waste, but our local power is hydro with all the mountains, so that feels nice.
x-jien t1_j92l6bs wrote
Yeah, having endless night during peak heating season really makes it a tough sell.
RudyRusso t1_j91ch33 wrote
37% of Texas energy is from renewable sources. 23% is wind, 10% Nuclear, and 4% is solar.
While conservative politicians bitch about clean energy, Texas because of its geography as a basin makes for great wind energy. Also, not all that clean energy makes it to where it needs to go, as west Texas wind projects are not necessarily connected to east Texas Metros.
sault18 t1_j92rrwa wrote
Nuclear isn't renewable.
[deleted] t1_j92vyg6 wrote
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King_Swift21 t1_j93qnlt wrote
It is, genius
sault18 t1_j93rdpx wrote
Well if you count Supernova explosions scattering heavy elements into the universe, even then it's not renewable. You know some way of continuously making uranium 235? If you do, the nuclear physicists would really love to know it. But back in the reality that the rest of us live in, there is only a limited amount of fissile fuel on our planet.
Tobias_Atwood t1_j950rlg wrote
It's even less renewable than coal and petroleum.
I mean yeah you let the earth sit for a few hundred million years you'll eventually get more carbon based fuels but if you want uranium you gotta blow up some god damned stars.
Do you have any idea how difficult that is?! It's pretty fucking difficult, genius.
RunInRunOn t1_j97oojt wrote
Nuclear energy not being renewable is, like, one of its two failings
SeverusSnek2020 t1_j8zqlzu wrote
Hoping they have a way to store excess energy reliably.
r0botdevil t1_j8zgofu wrote
Great Scott intensifies
That's enough to send Marty back to the future 20.66 times!
coconutsack699420 t1_j90cikg wrote
I actually came to comment this
joelluber t1_j90fofv wrote
We all did . . .
mrb783 t1_j910udz wrote
But only if those panels are moving at 88mph!
Jeffcor13 t1_j90qnni wrote
This is cool to see. Has solar power been been cancelled in Florida yet? Hopefully not.
OuidOuigi t1_j90tzs6 wrote
They are 8th in the country with the most solar capacity.
Jeffcor13 t1_j922sr5 wrote
Rookie numbers if you’re called the sunshine state, that’s embarrassing
r2k-in-the-vortex t1_j92a410 wrote
Hurricanes though... I'm sure there are ways to work around it, but it still has to make mounting panels significantly more difficult.
sault18 t1_j92s5en wrote
Racking, anchors, clamps, etc are designed for high wind areas. Florida solar installations actually get beefier hardware than those in California because it's designated as a high wind area.
2hp-0stam t1_j91d8je wrote
Over 25 games workshop?
mymar101 t1_j97j5pg wrote
Only 100 more to go till time travel.
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[deleted] t1_j92adbd wrote
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toesy t1_j8zv2f3 wrote
So ~6.25 GW to the grid…
sault18 t1_j92sfe7 wrote
Nope, 25 GW.
toesy t1_j92zkun wrote
The average capacity factor for solar is ~25%, this means that if you have a solar system of 100 GW it’s only producing 25% of its peak capacity. Another point is that the 100 GW quoted is likely dc, meaning it’s going to lose about 10% being converted to ac to be put onto the grid.
sault18 t1_j937pd0 wrote
Tell me you don't know what capacity factor means without telling me you don't know what capacity factor means.
toesy t1_j939bjs wrote
Explain how I’m wrong instead of postulating that I don’t know what I’m talking about.
toesy t1_j93aa1z wrote
I can make it easy for you.
100 GW 8 hours sunlight
So you’ve generated 800GWh out of a possible 2400 GWh
This would be 33% capacity
Given that you are only generating peak capacity for a limited amount of time and other factors like clouds you aren’t generating 100 GW for those 8 hours.
So a more realistic number is 600 GWh, meaning a 25% capacity factor.
This would be the equivalent of having a 25 GW base load asset running at 100% capacity factor
sault18 t1_j93g4rj wrote
Dude, OP was quoting instantaneous power, not energy. That's why they were wrong.
toesy t1_j93hye8 wrote
Electricity is needed 24 hours a day, 25 GW of solar is not providing 25 GW of continuous electricity to the grid for 24 hours.
Therefore 25 GW of solar puts the same amount of electrons to the grid as 6.25 GW of base load.
Yourbubblestink t1_j91ckyq wrote
Somebody’s buying up cheap land in Maine, cutting down the woods, and putting up solar panel farms. I think they’re absolutely awful. They seem to be complete eyesores, and I’m really questioning their value given the amount of natural destruction.
sault18 t1_j92s80y wrote
Have any examples or are you just making this up?
Yourbubblestink t1_j92sz4z wrote
There’s farmland in Troy that went from rolling pasture to industrial Park. Cianbro wiped out a farm and put up a huge facility on route two halfway between Newport and Skowhegan. There’s also a ton about it in the media
sault18 t1_j92u8kp wrote
You are absolutely lying about what these projects are doing:
"Syncarpha’s 7-MW project in Old Town will be leasing land from the city to construct an array on Dewitt Airfield. This land, currently vacant, unused and untaxed and with little agricultural value, will now be a stream of rental income for the city over the next 20-years.
In Readfield, Syncarpha and a property owner struck an unusual agreement, whereby the owner will put approximately 75 of 95 acres into conservation. The remaining acreage will be leased to Syncarpha for the construction and operation of a community solar farm.
The power generated by this array will benefit households in the same utility “load zone,” ensuring that the land is not subject to permanent commercial development. After the operational life of the solar farm, equipment will be removed and the portion used for solar will be put into conservation as well.
Syncarpha has purchased rocky land located next to a highway in Augusta to build a solar farm, but will not develop the entire parcel. The project is donating approximately 10 acres of woodlands to the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, its largest sportsman’s organization, for the alliance’s outdoor education center."
"Five years in the making, the 152-megawatt solar farm is one of many ongoing renewable energy projects geared toward meeting Maine’s statutory target of 80-percent clean energy by 2030.
The land is owned by Bessey Development Co., a Hinckley-based, family-owned wood brokerage company, and has been in the Bessey family for more than five generations. Most of the land was previously used for commercial timber harvesting, and some of it was used by a tenant farmer to grow corn.
In compliance with the state’s conservation policies to reduce environmental effects, the company has conserved 1,875 acres — including 1,020 acres in what’s called the Unity Wetlands Focus Area, 324 acres in Readfield and 531 acres in Shirley."
Yourbubblestink t1_j92vl11 wrote
Drive by a couple and check in with yourself after see if you feel the same way? - a Google Searches don’t really do it Justice - so ugly and unnatural. Maine getting covered with them because land is relatively cheap
sault18 t1_j92vs4q wrote
No, they're conserving more land than they're actually using for these things. A lot of the land isn't even forrested to begin with like you're trying to make people believe. And some of this supposedly forested land is actually for Timber production, not entirely Greenfield areas. So you're leaving out a lot of the story and it's clear you have an agenda that you're trying to push. People aren't buying it.
Yourbubblestink t1_j92x32k wrote
My only agenda is that I’ve driven by a few and been surprised by the industrial scale and ugliness of it. More will come as land is cheap and people are underemployed here
Tobias_Atwood t1_j95172t wrote
You can think they're ugly all you want. If that's your only reason for not liking them you're still foolish.
You'll dislike the look of that land even more when human induced climate change sets it all on fire or drowns it in horrific floods.
Yourbubblestink t1_j95gd02 wrote
Clearly you haven’t driven by any
Tobias_Atwood t1_j95heub wrote
I've driven by plenty of petroleum and coal related power plants and production facilities and I'd be so happy if they all got replaced by solar farms.
If your biggest problem with solar panels is the aesthetics you got serious issues the internet can't solve for you.
Yourbubblestink t1_j95i8m7 wrote
Yes they are hideous and industrial - destroying the landscape,
Tobias_Atwood t1_j95rfil wrote
Well I'm glad we're in agreement on installing more solar. Coal and oil fuck up the place too much to ignore.
Make way for beautiful solar to preserve the land and make the world green.
Yourbubblestink t1_j95rpd3 wrote
Also the windmills. Wow. Nobody mentioned that those involve clear cutting mountain tops
Tobias_Atwood t1_j95sa9h wrote
Gotta put them where the wind is. I guess that isn't obvious to you...
We can also plant more trees. That might also not be obvious to you...
Yourbubblestink t1_j95sijh wrote
Not on top of the mountains. I get the energy lol behind the wind and solar movements, but I really don’t think we’ve spent enough time talking about the environmental impact. They are really ugly. Really ugly.
Tobias_Atwood t1_j95tdb6 wrote
We've been talking about the environmental impact for literal decades. Fossil fuels gotta go or we're all gonna die. Slowly. Horribly. Agonizingly. Stretched out over decades and centuries as the planet becomes a thick hot morass of death and decay.
Anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool or a liar. Possibly both.
You can think renewables are ugly all you want, but I don't care. I'll bury everything you ever look at in solar panels. From here on out until the day the sun fucking dies I hope the only thing you ever see again is solar panels.
Yourbubblestink t1_j95xnv7 wrote
Hey, that’s cool. I don’t really get your rage/emotion, but whatever. I would really encourage you to go see one in real life sometime.
Electrical-Bed8577 t1_j9o8hqq wrote
Review available designs and recommend them to your politicians.
[deleted] t1_j9o7pin wrote
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Electrical-Bed8577 t1_j9o82e0 wrote
It isn't normally involved. It was noted as necessary due to decimation by infestation. Where there is a wind path you will typically see an opening of the trees. Check with your local forest service and politicians. Reports were filed. Please look into what is really happening to the forests due to climate change related infestation in North America. It's a viscious cycle. https://www.nature.org/en-us/newsroom/pests-pathogens-threats-forests-climate/
Syllogism19 t1_j8zc90y wrote
> Texas is a dominant state for utility-scale solar project construction, with 28 projects totaling 6.7 GW in capacity, with about 240 MW as an average project size. The state’s largest active project is 500 MW.
It is nice to see something uplifting happening in Texas.