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Posted on 3/9/17 at 12:11 pm to dabigfella
quote:
The Kauai project consists of a 52 megawatt-hour battery installation plus a 13 megawatt SolarCity solar farm
That's cute
Posted on 3/9/17 at 12:12 pm to CarRamrod
with solar, can you store the energy in one place and use it elsewhere or do you always have to be in close proximity? It seems like if you dont, Africa has a ton of cheap land with lots of sunlight
Posted on 3/9/17 at 12:17 pm to tankyank13
13 megawatts of capacity is literally a drop in the bucket as far as large scale power in concerned Your average coal plant has operating capacities MUCH higher than that. To create a solar facility with enough output to displace a coal fired plant would create a land footprint of probably tens of thousands of acres.
This post was edited on 3/9/17 at 12:19 pm
Posted on 3/9/17 at 12:18 pm to dabigfella
quote:
It seems like if you dont, Africa has a ton of cheap land with lots of sunlight
It also has lots of African warlords, who have a track record that's less than stellar.
Posted on 3/9/17 at 12:19 pm to fr33manator
quote:
with solar, can you store the energy in one place and use it elsewhere or do you always have to be in close proximity? It seems like if you dont, Africa has a ton of cheap land with lots of sunlight
you'd need a transmission and distribution system to get it back across the ocean.
Posted on 3/9/17 at 12:24 pm to Chilton4Bama
quote:
13 megawatts of capacity is literally a drop in the bucket as far as large scale power in concerned Your average coal plant has operating capacities MUCH higher than that. To create a solar facility with enough output to displace a coal fired plant would create a land footprint of probably tens of thousands of acres.
So in your opinion is solar the type of thing where the tech can improve to where less panels or less space is needed and more energy can be derived or no? It seems unrealistic to expect to have 10,000 acre solar farms in the future.
Posted on 3/9/17 at 12:25 pm to dabigfella
Getting a 250 acre one here in Vidalia
Posted on 3/9/17 at 12:26 pm to ChandlerB03
from tesla?
Posted on 3/9/17 at 12:31 pm to dabigfella
The technology will improve, but in my opinion we need much greater improvements in battery technology to be able to store the energy generated from solar. Hopefully Tesla can deliver on this end as well.
People are quick to point out the evils of fossil fuels, and they point to solar as the answer, but it's not that easy. you still have to deal with the large footprint of a solar, (or wind) facility. As well as the storage difficulties with both.
People are quick to point out the evils of fossil fuels, and they point to solar as the answer, but it's not that easy. you still have to deal with the large footprint of a solar, (or wind) facility. As well as the storage difficulties with both.
Posted on 3/9/17 at 12:36 pm to Chilton4Bama
Orbital ring space elevator FTW
Posted on 3/9/17 at 12:39 pm to Chilton4Bama
This is the issue.
One must look at fossil fuels as small tiny units of "stored" energy. You do a chemical reaction to release that energy.
With sunlight, the chemical reaction is already happening. Energy is lost and now you are trying to capture it via batteries.
Batteries are still far off from being able to store energy long term. And it capture rate is still not great.
One must look at fossil fuels as small tiny units of "stored" energy. You do a chemical reaction to release that energy.
With sunlight, the chemical reaction is already happening. Energy is lost and now you are trying to capture it via batteries.
Batteries are still far off from being able to store energy long term. And it capture rate is still not great.
Posted on 3/9/17 at 12:40 pm to dabigfella
quote:
It seems like if you dont, Africa has a ton of cheap land with lots of sunlight
I feel like there's been a lot of push to get some solar farms set up in the Sahara in the past. Would certainly be an interesting project, and will become exponentially more valuable once the storage of energy solar provides improves.
Posted on 3/9/17 at 12:42 pm to Tigeralum2008
They had massive wind turbines in Kauai before this, but it's an island in the middle of the Pacific. Migratory birds, some of which are endangered already, were getting killed left and right by the windmills, so they shut it down.
Posted on 3/9/17 at 12:43 pm to fr33manator
quote:
It also has lots of African warlords, who have a track record that's less than stellar.
Posted on 3/9/17 at 12:49 pm to Chilton4Bama
Chilton how profitable is something like this for the investors? I havent seen the costs but it says tesla agreed to build it out and now is basically making money by selling back electricity? What kind of ROI % wise do you think they see on their invested capital? Is it more profitable than traditional power generation?
Posted on 3/9/17 at 1:02 pm to dabigfella
quote:
Is it more profitable than traditional power generation?
If it was, don't you think we'd all be using solar power now?
Posted on 3/9/17 at 1:06 pm to dabigfella
quote:
if it takes 54,000 solar panels to power kauai,
I think that's just to power the plant, and then some will be sold to the utility, no?
I'm all for renewable energy, but does this seem like that much?
quote:
believe the project will reduce fossil fuel usage by 1.6 million gallons per year.
Posted on 3/9/17 at 1:06 pm to dabigfella
That I can't answer, not that smart and don't pretend to be. There has been very favorable tax treatment of solar facilities the past few years, (30% Investment tax credits) which really incentivized companies to build them.
Tesla probably looked at the operation as a money maker but also a way to do further R&D /testing on their battery systems before scaling up.
Tesla probably looked at the operation as a money maker but also a way to do further R&D /testing on their battery systems before scaling up.
Posted on 3/9/17 at 1:08 pm to dabigfella
That looks way better than an underground pipeline. I can understand why no protests occurred. Blends nicely into the beautiful scenery doesn't it?
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