192
The solar boom is rapidly transforming emerging economies (www.dw.com)
submitted 1 month ago by to c/energy@slrpnk.net
27 comments fedilink hide all child comments

all 27 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 21 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I look forward to an age where there's so much distributed solar power that it's not about building up infrastructure, but making cool patterns you can see from space.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
    • [–] 21 points 1 month ago (21 children)

    The west is falling behind thanks to Trump and Carney.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 21 child comments
    •
  • [–] 14 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    And Carney is being portrayed as sensible because he's "not as bad" as Trump. Radical flanking in effect.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [–] 6 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    Especially with his cuts to Canadian Food Inspection Agency

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago (1 child)

    Some of these agencies had a ridiculous number of people doing sweet fuck all. Over 10,000 worked at Health Canada, one of the bloated and inefficient agencies. CFIA had 6,400 people.

    I know you work in government but the model of poor productivity is not sustainable in a country with this GDP.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago

    Restructure and invesetment is almosy always more sensible then cuts. Cuts are for when things are so bad that that are intended to lower the quality and growth of services.

    Conservitives keep trying to run gov agemcies like bloated investor driven companies and it really shows

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 7 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    I don't really think this comment is responsive to the article. Solar is getting built out everywhere (including in the US), and the baseline high energy consumption of the west obscures the smaller percentage based change while still representing a huge absolute change in energy source mix.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago (12 children)

    This is one of those things that no one realizes cause no one draws too much attention to it, but the US hasn't been slacking on renewables in general - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_the_United_States - https://earthenergylog.com/articles/solar-power-statistics-us-2026

    The thing is, developing countries will always see a bigger impact from newer technology because they are developing and so are building up base capacity. In the US we already have a lot of base load that already exists, so new power is to either increase overall load or to replace. Both of those things typically happen slower than new build out.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 12 child comments
    •
  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (11 children)

    Also solar is more decentralized by it's nature so you don't need to deploy all the infrastructure normally expected. A village doesn't need to be connected to a larger grid to receive power during the daytime. Heck, a lot of individual homes can manage if the owners can afford panels and batteries.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 11 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago (10 children)

    It still needs to be connected to the grid to receive power at night unless you think every village can afford battery storage

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 10 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago (8 children)

    Batteries are super cheap now. Even in US, $100/kwh at 2400kwh+ bms/connections pack range. Means you can oversize it for half average charge/discharge utilization and pay just 2c/kwh. solar installation on homes in China is 70c/watt, and with no tariffs and even cheaper local labour, that can offset shipping costs. So 6kw solar and 20kwh battery costs $6200. That's a $17.22 monthly electric bill that is inflation proof.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 8 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago (4 children)

    Still need the grid as in winter months output is low. So 6 kW solar and 20 kWh battery is rather unbalanced.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago (3 children)

    Doubling the budget is doubly the monthly electric bill. An EV getting a free monthly fuel bill 10 months of the year, is also a winter resilience device to charge the home with a trip to commercial charger. Majority of low income countries, topic, are concentrated around equator and lower seasonal variation. Rainy season in summer often means more winter than summer production.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    Whoops. I got it wrong, sorry. If we follow Victron's recommendations (4.8 kWh backup for 1.5 kWp generation) than for 6 kWp the LiIon backup (AC-coupled) would be pretty exactly 20 kWh. So your numbers are perfectly balanced.

    The problem with just scaling up is that in winter months I can easily see 1/20th to 1/40th of PV nameplate during daytime, and such conditions can persist for more than a month. So without the grid as a backup the only option is diesel generation backup, or going entirely without any major power drain.

    For low-consumer countries in the tropics the equation is much easier, since they're consuming less than Westerners in general.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago (1 child)

    A model for Canada, does require enough solar for just 1 hour total sun to meet electricity needs (for winter). Backup heating necessary, but hydronic and heat pump (reversible heat/AC split units per room) is good use of fall solar to charge up a hot water reservoir that also gets recharged on sunny winter days. An EV that can charge the home counts as a backup heat source. This can mean much higher solar production for 9-10 months than you can use, but also means profitable bitcoin mining or GPU rental for that period. And/or free EV charging, hottub/pool heating, or other energy sinks that become free, off grid.

    Canada/Ontario has corrupt electricity system, with $50/month flat fee. So a $50-$100/month equivalent (5x above investment) off grid cost is a better energy opportunity/alternative especially including vehicle fuel savings, but also in new construction heating system cost savings. A fireplace or woodstove may be an arguable quality of life improvement, instead of just a heating appliance.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago

    If I look at my DIY 2 kWp PV output right now (about noon), it's pretty much exactly 100 W. I'm going to double that this month, but it's still only 200 W then under such conditions. It's just not cost effective to overbuild that (physically, it's not even possible for me) to cover an average 24 h period during the darker time of the year. I'm lucky that my meter is old enough to be able run backwards, otherwise I'd have to invest a few kEUR into a battery backup, which still be no bueno for the winter months. Only hydrogen storage can load level seasonally, and that's entry level a 100 kEUR spend, and bleeding edge technology.

    I heat with locally sourced (why, last year was mostly from the own garden, and for the next year a neighbor just felled a tree, otherwise it's from a local forest close enough to walk to) so that's not an issue.

    I'm hesitating into investing into a split AC, though the heat spells are starting to be serious trouble. EV is right out of budget. In order to use the overcapacity from the future 4 kWp I'm thinking about running a local LLM.

    First world problems, I know.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago* (1 child)

    How on earth do you go from saying it's $100 per kwh to paying $0.02 per kwh? I don't think anyone would accept a 500 year time to pay off their initial investment.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago

    the battery charges/discharges every day. If it did so in full, for 10000 cycles, that would be 1c/kwh lifetime electricity premium from battery. In terms of time value of money consideration, it is a fully tax free savings/return, and inflation proof. I gave China as an example. They have very low "risk free" interest rates, but it is easiest to adjust long term government bonds to tax free return as an approximation of inflation savings, to every country.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
    • [–] 1 point 1 month ago

    usa using solar to power data centers not net zero

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
    •