Solar energy is the future. I want to save my planet!! What about you?

[soulcancer]

ppl talking about "save the planet"...we are not even close to understanding the planet yet...and we cant even save ourselves from the stupid shit that we do every day...the mathematical fact is, every living human being on the earth could stand in the city of los angeles....rest of the world totally empty...my point? we are not as important as some may think..."But the level of CO2 is going up!"...the relative atmospheric concentration of gases has been in constant flux for, oh....ever!!...why must we believe for a minute that it has to remain static at pre-industrial level for the rest of time...the only constant is change..."But CO2!!"...here's an idea, forget about the century that we spent getting mercury out of the hands of children....lets make cfl's cuz we believe they may reduce CO2 emissions...oh ya, and possibly because jeffrey immelt had the ear of the lawmakers for years...sooner or later we all have to come to grips w/ the 2nd law of thermodynamics (or some form thereof)...making the tesla, the solar panel, etc, etc is, in the long run, going to make just as big a mess (if not bigger) than doing it the old fashioned way...only difference being, you dont see the mess...it ends up in some river in china or africa

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[bluefirecorp_]

ppl talking about "save the planet"...we are not even close to understanding the planet yet...and we cant even save ourselves from the stupid shit that we do every day...the mathematical fact is, every living human being on the earth could stand in the city of los angeles....rest of the world totally empty...my point? we are not as important as some may think..."But the level of CO2 is going up!"...the relative atmospheric concentration of gases has been in constant flux for, oh....ever!!...why must we believe for a minute that it has to remain static at pre-industrial level for the rest of time...the only constant is change..."But CO2!!"...here's an idea, forget about the century that we spent getting mercury out of the hands of children....lets make cfl's cuz we believe they may reduce CO2 emissions...oh ya, and possibly because jeffrey immelt had the ear of the lawmakers for years...sooner or later we all have to come to grips w/ the 2nd law of thermodynamics (or some form thereof)...making the tesla, the solar panel, etc, etc is, in the long run, going to make just as big a mess (if not bigger) than doing it the old fashioned way...only difference being, you dont see the mess...it ends up in some river in china or africa

https://what-if.xkcd.com/8/

Highlights the issue of super dense areas.

Overall, climate change is caused by humans; look at the radical change in the last 100 years as opposed to the previous 10000 years. Earth doesn't have a radical history of change; but slow gradual change.

[veleten]

solar power is a good way to introduce more efficient energy ,yes
to save the planet you will need to change more than the means of energy acquisition
doesn't matter if you have the cheapest and the cleanest energy if only a few "elite" can use it
Tesla discovered a source of energy that is, supposedly, kept secret for decades
you should look not for the ways to improve the technosphere, but change the way people think and the way societies are

[SaltySpitoon]

For anyone interested, I did some follow up with the companies offering $0.40/watt used solar panels. They aren't nearly as great of a deal as they make them out to be, but they are still better than expected.

For the 3KW of Solar panels for $1200, Shipping is $700, Mounting hardware is $1-2k, Inverters, charge controllers and such are about $800, and then whatever wiring you'd need. If you can install them yourself, you are looking at about  $3700-$4700 plus wiring. It gets more than two times more expensive if you need to hire someone to install any of it for you. If you want to tie it into the power grid, you do need someone licensed to do so, and the cost becomes prohibitive.

The solar panels you receive are around 10 years old, and provide 90% of the power they are rated for approximately, so effectively 2700 watts. At a DIY cost of, I'll split the difference and say $4300 for 2700 watts, you are at about $1.60 per watt. Each watt of solar panels will provide 1KWH of power every 1000 hours of peak operation. So, if you are paying $0.08 per KWH, you need 20 * 1,000 hours peak to hit an ROI on your solar panels. ~833 days of continuous sunlight. I think for estimates sake, 8 hours of direct sunlight per day is a slight over approximation, but we'll use it anyway. It takes about 2500 days for your panels to pay themselves off. About 7 years.

Of course, during that time the solar panels will degrade about 1% efficiency per year, winters don't provide the 8 hours of direct sun per day that we were figuring, and such, so I'd say broadly you are talking 7-10 years and the solar panels will pay themselves off at $0.40/watt. That isn't nearly as bad as the 20-30 year estimates that new solar panels try to get you with, but it still isn't fantastic. If you need to have them installed, the cost becomes prohibitive. But! If you own an RV or a Shed and want to have a little bit of backup power or something, and you have enough electrical knowhow to do it safely yourself, go for it.

I still affirm my position that solar panels are somewhat of a waste at the moment, but in theory they are a good idea, and give it some time and they'll be worthwhile. On a side note, I'd be curious what the environmental impact is for the production of the solar panels in the first place, for those that care.

[bluefirecorp_]

For anyone interested, I did some follow up with the companies offering $0.40/watt used solar panels. They aren't nearly as great of a deal as they make them out to be, but they are still better than expected.
I still affirm my position that solar panels are somewhat of a waste at the moment, but in theory they are a good idea, and give it some time and they'll be worthwhile. On a side note, I'd be curious what the environmental impact is for the production of the solar panels in the first place, for those that care.

Shipping is $0 if you pick 'em up (they're a fairly local company from what I was told). Average Americans pay $0.10 per kwh. Technically, it really depends on area for solar energy; but throughout the year, it's 4.5 hours of sunlight in my area (for solar, data from my town's solar farm).

The numbers are there to make energy ROI worth it; even more so if you purchase the solar panels on a loan and pay it back as though you're paying a utility bill. Eventually the loan is paid off and you get a few years of free energy.

On a side note, I'd be curious what the environmental impact is for the production of the solar panels in the first place, for those that care.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_returned_on_energy_invested

[waterman]

I also want to save the planet but solar energy alone is not the answer because what it is going to happen on cloudy days? no power... The solution has to be a combination of solar power and wind power and yes nuclear power too. I know that nuclear power it is  dangerous but if we as humanity are going to expand across the galaxy we need to master the nuclear energy

[bluefirecorp_]

I also want to save the planet but solar energy alone is not the answer because what it is going to happen on cloudy days? no power... The solution has to be a combination of solar power and wind power and yes nuclear power too. I know that nuclear power it is  dangerous but if we as humanity are going to expand across the galaxy we need to master the nuclear energy

Nuclear power is actually statistically safer than rooftop solar panels, if you go by the amount of deaths.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_accidents#Fatalities

[Spendulus]

....If you need to have them installed, the cost becomes prohibitive. But! If you own an RV or a Shed and want to have a little bit of backup power or something, and you have enough electrical knowhow to do it safely yourself, go for it. ....

Actually, consider the 1-2 orders of magnitude improvement of modern LED lights and televisions,computers versus yesterday.

In a mild climate, you can 100% power the RV or shed with solar GIVEN THESE NEW STYLE DEVICES.

But the credit is not the solar, but the better devices. The solar is not relevant to the prime mover, the actual solution.

There's nothing hugely positive or wonderful about solar. It's just a type of powering stuff. Put it out on a job or a site and deal with it, deal with the hassles. Nothing to get excited about.

.....
I still affirm my position that solar panels are somewhat of a waste at the moment, but in theory they are a good idea, and give it some time and they'll be worthwhile. ....

They are a waste for the mis-directed applications they are being pushed for, by government incentives.

Without that, their actual productive uses would multiply.

Remote houses, hunting cabins, RVs, everything on islands that get lots of sun and need to bring coal/oil in for power, etc.

[Spendulus]

ppl talking about "save the planet"...we are not even close to understanding the planet yet...and we cant even save ourselves from the stupid shit that we do every day...the mathematical fact is, every living human being on the earth could stand in the city of los angeles....rest of the world totally empty...my point? we are not as important as some may think..."But the level of CO2 is going up!"...the relative atmospheric concentration of gases has been in constant flux for, oh....ever!!...why must we believe for a minute that it has to remain static at pre-industrial level for the rest of time...the only constant is change..."But CO2!!"...here's an idea, forget about the century that we spent getting mercury out of the hands of children....lets make cfl's cuz we believe they may reduce CO2 emissions...oh ya, and possibly because jeffrey immelt had the ear of the lawmakers for years...sooner or later we all have to come to grips w/ the 2nd law of thermodynamics (or some form thereof)...making the tesla, the solar panel, etc, etc is, in the long run, going to make just as big a mess (if not bigger) than doing it the old fashioned way...only difference being, you dont see the mess...it ends up in some river in china or africa

Just read this and I have to say you hit it just right. All those fools that believed the propaganda machines and went around babbling like idiots that we needed to all go CFL to save the planet...

They really do look stupid today, and it's because they were and are stupid.

Many other examples of primitive, unscientific thinking.

[Reinsurer]

Empty half the Earth of its humans. It's the only way to save the planet!

[romelitounknown]

Pheww that was a very long read. All has their point , you know guys the world we lived in is destined to get damaged in due time. There is nothing we could do to stop that from happening but at least we could help slow the process of the earth from being damaged by human beings. We cannot avoid innovations, and we cannot innovate without risking the earth from all the pollution that causes by innovating .

[emulsifryer]

Pheww that was a very long read. All has their point , you know guys the world we lived in is destined to get damaged in due time. There is nothing we could do to stop that from happening but at least we could help slow the process of the earth from being damaged by human beings. We cannot avoid innovations, and we cannot innovate without risking the earth from all the pollution that causes by innovating .

We all do have a point but we don't have the same opinions. We cannot convince all humans who live in this world just to agree on what's for the good/sake of saving our planet as you can see it's only on us if we keep on destroying the nature in our planet. Maybe from time to time, our nature will not be the same as what we have in the old times.

[NavI_027]

Empty half the Earth of its humans. It's the only way to save the planet!

I do agree. In simple representation, humans are the cancer cells and the host is our Earth. The cancer cells slowly killing the host so if we remove the cancer cells then the host will survive and recover again. However, in reality, it's not that so easy. Of course we cannot cut the world population into half because it's immorral. So I guess the best option we can do is to act like a "less harmful cell" as much as possible and shift yourself into a white blood cell (I hope you get my point).

[MoonCrypt]

Human is a danger to the earth and they will end up destroying it!!
they can't control it, the other day I was discussing with someone about Elite Mining Inc and the reason they decided to take the green initiative as a source of energy he said, he sees no reason for that, he can get power supply at cheaper rate does not matter!! I told him it matters we can solve the problems by just been a little bit kind to the earth...
check https://elitemininginc.com out
telegram:  https://t.me/EliteMiningInc

[Arian247]

Interesting article you have here, but the problem is those in power are too greedy to let the earth heal because they've collected and stored lots of natural resources for their own gains so they kick against total renewable energy.

[dikobraz123]

Regarding solar energy - there is an alternative to the photovoltaics on the horizon. It's called a Stirling engine. The idea for Stirling engine is ancient; but it's use in exploitation of solar power is recent.
Couple of links for further reading:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar-powered_Stirling_engine
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/may/13/could-this-be-the-worlds-most-efficient-solar-electricity-system
https://www.spaceflightinsider.com/space-centers/glenn-research-center/it-keeps-going-and-going-stirling-engine-test-sets-long-duration-record-at-nasa-glenn/

[bhabygrim]

It's not about fixing what has already been destroyed and what will be destroyed regardless at this point, but about minimizing the losses.

We should do whatever is in our best ability to slow down global warming and limit it's impact on the ecosystem.

I agree this is not about fixing it because it is really hard to do we should just minimize the damage,
We should do something to prevent it for being worst,Just think about what the future would be how would we live our life with just less natural resource around us being destroyed?
Tree's and plants being cut down ,Polluted water every where how could the next generation enjoy their life ?

[bozzy]

I would love to put some solar panels on my house.  The up front cost is just really prohibitive right now though.  There used to be some really great tax incentives to get it done, but I don't think those are around as much with the new administration.  I could be wrong though.  The alternative energy source that I have been getting really excited about lately is Small Modular Nuclear Reactors.  There is a company called NuScale that is doing some amazing things. If they were publicly traded I would buy their stock in a heartbeat.  They have reactors that can be daisy chained to produced huge amounts of power.  They have a smaller footprint than traditional power plants and they are meltdown proof.  They are also working on technology to make them immune to EMP's.  I really think they can make a huge impact on the future of energy.  I reached out to the company about what happens with the "waste" after the rods are spent.  They actually got back to me with a really well worded and thought out reply.  It could all be BS, but I think they have enough credibility that I can probably believe them.  If you want me to share their response in another reply, just let me know.  Their work is so impressive that some of the regulatory commissions have fast tracked their approval process. 

[xvids]

Well we all wants to save the planet it is our home and everyone wants to protect our home .
But we couldn't possible save it on our own we need to act together to save it .
We need to stop cutting tree's and throwing our garbage or waste in the sea.
And it is my plan when I buy my own house I would use a solar panel to save money for my electric bills.

[TimeBits]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlSCl-mjAYg this is the future, I also have a crazy way with mirrors and water to make what nik tesla was onto.