EEVblog 1544 - Platio Solar Pavement BUSTED!

[.RC.]

99% reliability would still be days of outages every year. That would be totally unacceptable in a first world country in 2023. 

As for the freezer.   Keep in mind these places, will often have to fit a full cow or two into the freezer.  Many have coldrooms.   So while power usage while everything is frozen is a lot less then when they put a fresh warm cow in the freezer.  Then it may run continuously for a couple of days or more.

It is going to be these sorts of things that would really throw a spanner in the works of someone working out requirements.  Also many places have multiple houses.  All the places around here are generally two or more houses. Looking at my bill, it is around 2200 to 2400kWh per quarter of a year and reasonable static. But only one inhabited house.

There are other issues with solar as well.   Land use and maintenance.   Install them on poles just above the ground  and you will eventually end up with a huge fire hazard as grass grows under them.   I know some of the grifters go on about "sheep" grazing under them but then you have animal welfare problems from dingo's/wild dogs that not take only babies but also do horrendous damage to sheep.  Also I think it extremely unlikely the people paying for the building of the solar farms are going to make the area sheep proof.   They would rub on the poles and try to chew stuff.  Maybe heavy metal issues of elements from the panels leaching into the ground over a decade or two or three. Be interesting to test the rainwater tanks of people who have had panels long term on their roof.

I do not think it is an easy thing to change to something new that is of equal performance at this point in time.

[tszaboo]

99% reliability would still be days of outages every year. That would be totally unacceptable in a first world country in 2023. 

As for the freezer.   Keep in mind these places, will often have to fit a full cow or two into the freezer.  Many have coldrooms.   So while power usage while everything is frozen is a lot less then when they put a fresh warm cow in the freezer.  Then it may run continuously for a couple of days or more.

It is going to be these sorts of things that would really throw a spanner in the works of someone working out requirements.  Also many places have multiple houses.  All the places around here are generally two or more houses. Looking at my bill, it is around 2200 to 2400kWh per quarter of a year and reasonable static. But only one inhabited house.

There are other issues with solar as well.   Land use and maintenance.   Install them on poles just above the ground  and you will eventually end up with a huge fire hazard as grass grows under them.   I know some of the grifters go on about "sheep" grazing under them but then you have animal welfare problems from dingo's/wild dogs that not take only babies but also do horrendous damage to sheep.  Also I think it extremely unlikely the people paying for the building of the solar farms are going to make the area sheep proof.   They would rub on the poles and try to chew stuff.  Maybe heavy metal issues of elements from the panels leaching into the ground over a decade or two or three. Be interesting to test the rainwater tanks of people who have had panels long term on their roof.

I do not think it is an easy thing to change to something new that is of equal performance at this point in time.

I've been to the island of Krk in Croatia. It's an island still connected with a bridge, quite beautiful.
Anyway, so the power went out almost every second evening for half an hour an hour. People were used to it and they were prepared to it. And this is in the EU.
And don't act like all this solar installation is some sort of unresolved problem. You cut the grass, and make a fence. If you are in the Australian outback, I can tell you what you have plenty of is space. Or you place it on on your barn. I know several people who went off-grid while living in Spain. It's not the right choice for most people but it's doable.

[.RC.]

[
I've been to the island of Krk in Croatia. It's an island still connected with a bridge, quite beautiful.
Anyway, so the power went out almost every second evening for half an hour an hour. People were used to it and they were prepared to it. And this is in the EU.

I am not sure what you are saying, you want a section of society to actively go backwards?

And don't act like all this solar installation is some sort of unresolved problem. You cut the grass, and make a fence. If you are in the Australian outback, I can tell you what you have plenty of is space. Or you place it on on your barn. I know several people who went off-grid while living in Spain. It's not the right choice for most people but it's doable.

At what increased cost though? We have to pay more or reduce our standard of living, just because of what?

As a general point and this is not directed to any person in particular, I remember a story about a person in France, a well to do person who said something about letting others eat cake. Sadly I find this this happening today.

We must do something about emissions. But what they mean is.  Someone else must do something about their emissions as the person so worried about other people's emissions boards the jet for a trip to Paris for a few days holiday. This attitude is so freaking common.

Now I am going to go so far off topic I am in the next galaxy.  But all these people that go off about emissions, how many of them go and pay a stupid amount for a house, then jump up and down and demand the government subside things like electric cars so they can buy one.  Instead of paying $70 000 less for the $800 000 house, then buying panels and an electric car and using that their daily urban commute and getting on with the job.

[tszaboo]

[
I've been to the island of Krk in Croatia. It's an island still connected with a bridge, quite beautiful.
Anyway, so the power went out almost every second evening for half an hour an hour. People were used to it and they were prepared to it. And this is in the EU.

I am not sure what you are saying, you want a section of society to actively go backwards?

And don't act like all this solar installation is some sort of unresolved problem. You cut the grass, and make a fence. If you are in the Australian outback, I can tell you what you have plenty of is space. Or you place it on on your barn. I know several people who went off-grid while living in Spain. It's not the right choice for most people but it's doable.

At what increased cost though? We have to pay more or reduce our standard of living, just because of what?

As a general point and this is not directed to any person in particular, I remember a story about a person in France, a well to do person who said something about letting others eat cake. Sadly I find this this happening today.

We must do something about emissions. But what they mean is.  Someone else must do something about their emissions as the person so worried about other people's emissions boards the jet for a trip to Paris for a few days holiday. This attitude is so freaking common.

Now I am going to go so far off topic I am in the next galaxy.  But all these people that go off about emissions, how many of them go and pay a stupid amount for a house, then jump up and down and demand the government subside things like electric cars so they can buy one.  Instead of paying $70 000 less for the $800 000 house, then buying panels and an electric car and using that their daily urban commute and getting on with the job.

No, what I'm saying is that there are places that the 99% availability is better than what you get from he grid, and these places are more widespread than you think.
Why would an off grid installation be more expensive? They said it's cheaper than bringing the cables there. Mining copper and making concrete posts have also environmental impact, if that's what you are concerned with.
And people are rightfully pissed off about electric car prices. How can you compare this to housing prices at all? I can buy a house and pay say 1000EUR/month to the bank and have safety on it for decades. I use the house ~16 hours a day. If I want to buy an electric car, a VW ID5 leased is 800 EUR/month. I'm going to hopefully use it less than an hour a day.
They used the new technology to increase their profit margin, plus the production line costs isn't amortized for as long as before.
Compatible size petrol car is half the price (new) and on the used market there are way better choices.
Nobody ever shells out cash to buy a house, even if you can.

[user325153]

Some photos i took. It's barely noticeable when you walk there i'll give them that..