this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2023
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Uplifting News

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[–] [email protected] 60 points 1 year ago (3 children)

This is great, I guess it really was the economics of panels holding them back all these years. Great to see solar taking off, there are so many ways it can help, like shading parking lots (double win), apparently being great shade for some plants like hops, coving things like canals which both avoid using additional land area and reduces evaporative losses of the water, etc etc!

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A lot of solar panels are now semitransparent too, now, meaning as you said people can grow plants below them. I love the shading cars in parking lots idea, but no one seems to have impemented that in Australia just yet.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Awesome! Long way from me, but now I can show it to other Aussies! Thankyou!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

While cost has been coming down, efficiency has been going up. Panels now convert about 20% of the sunlight’s energy to electricity. When I was a kid it was 3-5% and it was a long slow climb. Maybe it’s just me but when I learned it had reached 20% that struck me as a lot.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Though efficiency is not really a relevant metric when the source energy is free. It has indirect impact such as the necessary area but efficiency is not a good indicator for solar overall. But yay science!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

What a bullshit take. Efficiency directly affects area and thereby all related overhead costs for cleaning, connecting, land use, production, etc.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I guess it also helps when you already own all the land to put them on.

[–] JohnDClay 28 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I was wondering how they keep them dust free, apparently robots!

Its rows of photovoltaic panels rotate to follow the sun and are kept clear of sand and dust by robotic cleaning modules.

https://www.spacedaily.com/afp/231116163125.unfiz7e9.html panel cleaning robots

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Damn that's neat

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Woah. Fuck yes!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

That’s a metric from a dysfunctional system. Lemmy needs a new one.