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Solar panels for surveillance but none for affordable power (lemmy.today)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/workreform@lemmy.world
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[–] 50 points 2 months ago (12 children)

Infrastructure?

It’s a self contained unit, the battery is in the unit, not elsewhere, and it actually saves tearing up roads to run power to these units.

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  • [–] 25 points 2 months ago (11 children)

    Legit it's sinking a single pole into the ground that only needs line of sight to the thing it's keeping an eye on. Total maybe 3sqft of space taken up.

    It's the cheapest option that has the most freedom of placement.

    As opposed to solar farms which require vast plots of land, power substations to make the power usable by the grid, and a lot more upkeep.

    Gee, I WONDER why so many of them have gone up instead of solar farms...

    Fuck flock and the government but this was a dumb attempt at a gotcha that just doesn't make sense if you think about if for more than 5 seconds.

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  • [–] 15 points 2 months ago* (3 children)

    Conversely though, there is ways to use the same tech to provide cheaper infrastructure as well though.

    My city they use them to provide lighted crosswalks, and as well as flashing stops signs where they are less noticeable. So to have Flock and NOT those, there’s some axes to grind.

    Article from 2011 about them starting it.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    Makes you wonder how much could we alleviate strain on the grid by upgrading existing things like this that can be self contained.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    I’m a little on the fence, I live where it’s cold and the batteries are a common fail point, plus long nights need larger batteries and more panels to charge them too. So depending on how important it is, it should probably be hooked up to the grid as well. A little redundancy, but a properly integrated system could provide to the grid when there’s extra (long summer days and short nights) and take when it’s needed (long winter nights.)

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  • [–] 7 points 2 months ago (4 children)

    As opposed to solar farms which require vast plots of land, power substations to make the power usable by the grid, and a lot more upkeep.

    We already have vast plots of land being taken up by parking lots and buildings. There is a hospital in my area that put solar panels over the parking lot. It is really nice. Your car interior stays cooler. Many buildings have their AC cooling fans on the roof. Solar panels would also shade those and help make them more efficient. All of these areas already have a hookup to the grid. Substation may need to be modified but it isn't as dramatic as you make it sound. Also everything has upkeep costs, including oil refineries and power plants.

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  • [–] -4 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    So you're saying we have big areas that are already being used for something else that would need to be at least partially demolished in order to accommodate the infrastructure?

    ... Something that is way more difficult than popping a pole in the ground.

    Look, I am 100% for renewables and have about 500W of panels for small things at home, I am not saying "don't do everything possible to distribute power over as many places that can be retrofitted as possible" I'm saying the OP meme is a bad comparison.

    Rooftop solar, parking lot solar, balconies with solar panels bolted on, bring on the distributed power grid. Bare minimum every country engaging in warfare should WANT solar everywhere since it makes it MUCH harder for anyone to attack power production facilities and take down important and significant portions of the grid. That alone makes their power grid much more secure, if not "under government control".

    I'd love to have a hybrid wind/solar setup, I live next to some fields and forest, andon top of a hill. So I get plenty of wind all year round and on the far end of the driveway I have a bit area for solar panels with great LOS for the sun from about 10am until sunset. I just don't have the money.

    So yeah, I'm all for sinking our tax dollars into a solar revolution (especially when considering what the country ACTUALLY spends money on) but the meme is a bad meme making a false equivalence.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago* (1 child)

    Where did he said that for that someone should demolish the rooftop of an hospital or, even more absurd, an open-air parking lot? You're just making a straw man fallacy, because you're distorting what he said so you can deny it more easy instead of trying to actually respond to what he actually said.

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  • [–] -3 points 2 months ago

    If you think things can be retrofitted for solar without partially dismantling, digging, or otherwise requiring, as stated, partial demolition, I've got a bridge to Alaska to sell you.

    And also as stated, I am in no way against doing these things.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    Hrmm, this got me thinking a little actually. Where I am, there isn’t much wind, but other provinces do, we were mainly coal and LPG powered, still are. But solar is on the upswing, our city has multiple massive solar farms.

    Anyways, what got me thinking is why we don’t have wind as well, I’m wondering if just due to the almost daily wind spikes being on the east side of the Rockies? How often would the be locked out would make them unfeasible?

    Maybe there’s some study on it I can dig up later.

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