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Solar Freakin' Railways too it seems...
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tom66:

--- Quote from: Circlotron on March 21, 2023, 04:12:29 am ---
--- Quote from: rdl on March 20, 2023, 07:35:50 pm ---I saw this last week. It looks pretty reasonable to me.

Solar Panels Floating in Reservoirs

https://www.wired.com/story/solar-panels-floating-in-reservoirs-well-drink-to-that/

--- End quote ---
Being out on the water they might stay free of dust and other contaminants longer than land based panels. I remember an outboard motor I was working on once, from the factory didn't have an air cleaner on the carburettor.

--- End quote ---

It's a good idea.  One additional advantage is by shielding the reservoir from light, you reduce the production of bromate which needs to be kept low. So downstream that reduces the cost of processing the water.  For the same reason,  California has put black plastic balls in their reservoirs.
AndyBeez:
 :wtf:
MarkS:

--- Quote from: mendip_discovery on March 21, 2023, 06:49:24 pm ---That is the thing, isn't it? Hype it up, get some grants etc.

Spank the money of posh meals and a good PR. Get more money, and make a product that doesn't work. Go bust, meanwhile, you have had "business" trips to conferences and meetings with potential customers. Oh and pay yourself handsomely for all the excellent PR work that has been done.

Rinse and repeat.

--- End quote ---

That's the environmental movement in a nutshell. Use scare tactics to pressure people into funding needless projects that make a certain subset of the population rich while providing no real benefit and then applaud those that support the measures so they feel good about themselves and keep pressing for more projects and funding. Meanwhile, no real accomplishments are made, and if a project gets close to being truly useful, find a way to demonize it so that an alternative project can get funding.

Then rinse and repeat.
RJSV:
Thanks MarkS,
for that last comment 'environmentalists in a nutshell'.

   I agree.  However, with a bit of what I perceive as bad luck, initially, it's turned out some degree of alarm is valid, in the face of some significant fraudery...
Meaning that the torqkes that pushing 'Eviron Justice' can maybe continue their inaccurate summaries, tangling in some racial angles, indigenous people affected more...Enabling those folks who may go down that (alarmist) road, regardless of validity.
   Reasonable folks gonna have to just, roll their eyes in valid disgust, endure the ACTUAL consequences, while simultaneously suffering (the fools) as misc. SOCIAL agendas get dialed in, intertwined so to speak, with the valid aspects of climate damaging industry.

   So if someone like, say, Elizabeth Warren gets to claim her 'indiginous rights, assumedly disproportionately affecting 'her' special racial status, then why, the hell, can't I ?
Claiming special 'racial' status, as an Irish descendant, a total POTHEAD, having to endure endless slurs like:
   "...You people stink...". (nasty cannabis oders).
 
    So, yeah, dear reader, you might think the above is a ridiculous and convoluted argument, (Irish Potheads deserve reparations, too).
   The hell it is!   Just valid as those other 'environmental justice' claims...
abebarker:
I've thought solar roadways was a bad idea for over two decades. Solar railways is new to me but equally stupid.

In 2000 my dad asked me the question if putting solar cells on roads was a good idea. At the time, he was trying to source epoxy covered cells and could only get them out of India so it had some relevance. They would be covered in glass and all for the roads but still, very bad idea. Cleaning would be more costly than anticipated. An automobile accident would be that much more dangerous and costly. Completely bad idea.

However, the concept of using blacktop as a solar collector has merit. The best theoretical solar collector is a blackbody at 0° Kelvin. If it were possible to take as much heat as we wanted and convert it to electricity then wouldn't it just be responsible to calculate how much added energy the blacktop introduces to the environment and take that energy back out?
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