this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2024
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Science Memes

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Hooooooooooooooooooot (files.catbox.moe)
submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, but PV is dirt cheap nowadays. Also

degrade over a few years.

If by "few" you mean like 30-50 then sure, they degrade. But it certainly beats anything with a spinning turbine. Or anything with moving parts really. PV is purely solid state physics, you can't get more longevity than that.

If the capacitance of the system is not enough to hold the produced power then an electrical failure will occur, so you must also include large commercial and industrial batteries

That's not true. You can also simply turn PV off. The inverters only run when they sense 50 Hz on their output terminals, it's easy to have them turn off when it's 50.2 instead. Basically all big powerplants follow that rule already, ordered by things like shutoff time etc.

a Heliostat (a Collection Tower and Mirror Array) out in the desert

Funny that you specified in the desert. The appeal of PV is not only that it's cheap and easy, it also scales down to small investments and local power generation. If base load actually becomes a problem concentrated solar power will be relevant. But for now, slapping a few solar panels on your roof just makes sense.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

lmao your consumer grade photovoltaic panels will not last 50 years.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The solar panels I just bought have a manufacturer warranty for 87% power output after 30 years.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago

That's much more realistic, I like that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

My dad is still using the first 60w panel he bought in 1986, for 600$. Obvs added many more to his system, and who knows how efficient it is, but it does work, haven't put a ampmeter on it though.

Mind you it was made in the USA, probably better materials than nowadays.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

The mass market has really pushed solar panel production. I expect the material quality even of the cheap china panels to be better than what anyone was able to produce almost 40 years ago. That's a long time to understand degradation processes and develop countermeasures.