morto@piefed.social to Science Memes@mander.xyzEnglish · 22 hours agoTurbines are our friendsmedia.piefed.socialimagemessage-square82linkfedilinkarrow-up1558arrow-down14
arrow-up1554arrow-down1imageTurbines are our friendsmedia.piefed.socialmorto@piefed.social to Science Memes@mander.xyzEnglish · 22 hours agomessage-square82linkfedilink
minus-squareryannathans@aussie.zonelinkfedilinkEnglisharrow-up5·19 hours agoI assume not efficient enough to justify cost
minus-squaremarcos@lemmy.worldlinkfedilinkEnglisharrow-up3·8 hours agoTurns out that sunlight is very cheap. You need a lot of efficiency to justify any extra cost.
minus-squaremnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.workslinkfedilinkEnglisharrow-up2·4 hours agoPlus, 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
minus-squaremarcos@lemmy.worldlinkfedilinkEnglisharrow-up1·3 hours agoIn 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.
minus-squaremnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.workslinkfedilinkEnglisharrow-up2·1 hour agoThe sunlight spent just to get the water up to temperature is also wasted, so the maximum extractable energy per day gets kneecapped
minus-squareDamage@slrpnk.netlinkfedilinkEnglisharrow-up2·16 hours agoPV panels have very low maintenance needs
I assume not efficient enough to justify cost
Turns out that sunlight is very cheap. You need a lot of efficiency to justify any extra cost.
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
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.
The sunlight spent just to get the water up to temperature is also wasted, so the maximum extractable energy per day gets kneecapped
PV panels have very low maintenance needs