ryannathans comments on Turbines are our friends

Turbines are our friends (media.piefed.social)

submitted 7 months ago by morto@piefed.social to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

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[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 3 points 7 months ago (5 children)

I assume not efficient enough to justify cost

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[–] marcos@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Turns out that sunlight is very cheap. You need a lot of efficiency to justify any extra cost.

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[–] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 3 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Plus, you get a lot of lag when heating water with concentrated solar. Overnight your water cools down, so you need time to get it back to boiling temperature before it can generate any power. That lag gets worse during winter and cloudy days

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[–] marcos@lemmy.world 1 point 7 months ago (1 child)

In some ways, that lag is good. You can cheaply replace batteries with just a thermal mass.

But it's not good enough to make up for the cost difference.

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[–] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 months ago

The sunlight spent just to get the water up to temperature is also wasted, so the maximum extractable energy per day gets kneecapped

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[–] Damage@slrpnk.net 3 points 7 months ago

PV panels have very low maintenance needs

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