Located 3196 results from search term 'solar'
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Commented in New French law will blanket parking lots with solar panels
There is currently no law in France requiring solar panels to be built above most parking lots. However, France has set a goal to significantly increase its use of renewable energy, including solar power, in order to combat climate change. The French government has implemented a number of policies and initiatives aimed at promoting the development and use of renewable energy sources, such as tax incentives, grants, and subsidies. Additionally, there have been efforts to increase the installation of solar panels on residential and commercial buildings, as well as large-scale solar power projects.
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Commented in Environmental protection of the earth, entrusted to artificial intelligence
Hmmm....computers don't eat, drink or breath, they are impervious to heat, cold, pollution, solar radiation and disease. They are not partial to anything living, since they are not alive. They do however require energy, and would be interested as to how that came to them. They would categorize anything that made it more difficult, inconvenient, ineffective or less efficient to fulfill its energy requirement as non essential.
Congratulations Hal....we've elected you as the gatekeeper for the survival of our living biosphere we call earth! -
Commented in Producing Clean Hydrogen From Solar Power and Wood Chips
Rather than burning by combustion, the wood chips are converted to a mixture of gases containing a large proportion of hydrogen. Alternatively, in the absence of solar heating, this gasifier could also be heated conventionally by burning fuel to deliver heat to the system
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Commented in Stanford Engineers Create Solar Panels That Work at Night
I hope these are on the mass market by the time our solar contract with the government runs out in 2031. This would give us a better chance of simply going off-grid.
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Commented in Why California is shutting down its last nuclear plant
Can they do it all with wind and solar? I hope so.
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Commented in Fossil Fuel Companies Want Governments To Pay $18 Billion For Bringing In Laws Tackling The Climate Crisis Largely Caused By Fossil Fuel Companies
It shows at least how destructive corporate and political greed are and I hope, for once, that more and more people will get the insight it is, quite easy, to walk away from the old technologies and ways of thinking and handling. In stead of waiting for politicians and companies to come up with solutions, which they comfortably do not, us people should do that with the technologies at hand, which are a lot, actually. You can see it also happen more and more, when neighbourhoods share their solar energy, less people using their cars or even owning one (in cities at least). Less people are voting, too.
To me it all looks like a waning and fading of a certain era and, just like with the old style banks, these are some last cramps. They are quickly losing their grip on society and like with politics, they try to hold on to it with extremeties.
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Commented in Once-in-a-century solar superstorm could plunge world into ‘internet apocalypse’
So only the intercontinental (undersea) connections are vulnerable. Hmmmm, what if...
I was a country that didn't want any site hosted in another ("competing") country being shown in my country?
I want to disrupt overseas financial transactions, either for the fuck of it or just to bug a specific country/group of countries?
I want to see the digital world burn and wreac havoc, again, for the fuck of it or with a specific goal?Then this phenomenon could be a great excuse/cover up for the things done.
The plot thickens...What if I forced several countries into using, let's say, certain figherjets totally dependant on a global network to function well and also be controllable via said network?
Or, even better, have nuclear weapons stashed around the world, totally controllable via digital communications after an upgrade I just realised?The things that can go wrong with a solar superstorm as an excuse.
Oooh, what a world we live in: on one hand it is wonderful to the n-th degree, on the other hand it is so ridden with devious people that totally would and could make formerly mentioned "assumptions" happen. All it takes is one or more lunatics, completely driven by power hunger, money or some imbecelic (read: political) world view.
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Commented in The Air Force Is Building a Spacecraft That Will Beam Solar Power to Earth
I thought the Sun already beamed solar power to Earth
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Commented in Why NASA wants to put a nuclear power plant on the moon
Isn't solar a smarter move, as in: cheaper and without atmospheric disruption? On Mars I can understand the choice for nuclear better.
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Commented in The Batteries of the Future Are Weightless and Invisible
First I read of this, but it's a really cool concept. And it's sort of obvious once it's pointed out. If you can make a battery shaped like a car, then it serves two purposes. Ditto for a cell phone. It's similar to the concept of making office tower windows also serve as solar panels.
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Commented in The sun has entered a ‘lockdown’ period, which could cause freezing weather, famine
Murdoch press, what more need I say, anything to make people doubt global warming. Oh and NASA said the solar minimum had arrived in 2006. Old news and the temperature has been rising ever since. Temperatures plummeting? Not really.
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Commented in Solar-sailing satellite proves it can use light to propel through space
They will move us into the furthest reaches of our solar system either by the photons from our Sun, or by a light laser carried on the spacecraft itself.
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Commented in Silica aerogel could make Mars habitable
But what's to keep solar flairs/winds from just blowing it away? And then there are the noxious soil partials and radiation...I just don't think it's plausible.
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Commented in Prepare for Earth to be hit by a meteor in your lifetime, Nasa chief says
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Commented in Clean fuel cells could be cheap enough to replace gas engines in vehicles
This does not make any sense to me. Hydrogen is just a mean of energy transport. Someone has to make energy for you, whether it is electricity or hydrogen does not really matter. Roof solar battery is not enough to power your house alone, leave alone also powering a car.
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Commented in Sono reveals first design of Sion, its production solar car
If you were only driving in a city or not driving much, or had solar panels on your house, you might never pay for fuel at all. That could cut the total cost of ownership and driving by quite a lot.
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Commented in This old coal plant is now a solar farm, thanks to pressure from local activists
Good..Every one of these needs to be replaced with solar/wind power.
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Commented in China’s latest energy megaproject shows that coal really is on the way out
This is exciting news! This should definitely help cut down on health-related issues from air pollution. Plus, solar is the way of the future. I wish more of the major countries would move with the times.
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Commented in Fearing climate change, experts in San Diego warn U.S. nuclear industry faces collapse
There are good reasons nuclear energy is going extinct. Including ALL the costs of mining, enrichment, transportation, building, operating decommissioning and radwaste storage it is by far the most expensive energy source. If the same amount of money and resources had been put into solar and other clean energies and energy storage, as has been wasted on nuclear, we would have more energy than we could use. The Tesla battery storage operations are proving that it could be done on a city/regional level. This propaganda piece by the nuclear industry and their apologists at the San Diego Union Tribune won't change any of those facts.
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Commented in If renewable energy can power entire countries, why isn't everyone doing it?
They claim they have enough money, but do they really
Yes. Australia has some of the largest provinces in China.
Governments run on huge deficits
Meanwhile, economies run on money banks create out of thin air when they issue debt.
they could go into more debt for it and are probably good for it, but is it cost-effective
That depends on what costs we consider to be what economists call externalities, and what costs we don't bury because they're not our job. For instance, poisoning the atmosphere to the point of another great extinction in Earth's history, that's a real cost, not an externality in our energy economy.
let's not forget that a country like the USA is large, not postage stamp sized like the often quoted Iceland
Incidentally, it's always surprising to me how big Australia is.
The truth is that it would cost billions for each state to implement
So what? We spent $100 extra on military spending this year and didn't even have any debate about that.
you would have to get large batteries to store it
Or what any country with a national industrial policy and world class research and development know-how would do, develop new kinds of energy storage.
my understanding is battery production is in no way Green
There're more ways to store energy than electric batteries. As the U.S. Navy's shown, if you've got enough extra energy around you can do more than just desalinate, you can synthesize jet fuel. There are more things you can do with excess energy than are dreamt of in your wildest Aziz Ansari bit.
batteries also don't last forever and need to be replaced
Some folks store energy by using it to haul heavy trains or water uphill. There're a lot of options for energy research around storage.
would there be an offset to the green revolution when they have to continue producing very unclean batteries?
Agreed, let's get control over these supposed externalities early.
The article talks about a cost of 3.3 Trillion
Oh, so roughly two-years-in-Iraq money?
As does money it would cost to update and install.
I'm confused, it's like we don't have free market economics on our side? Why do we as Americans have so much trouble understanding that industrial policy isn't the exact same thing as a command economy?
We are tied to the past
Which'd be fine, if the past had a future. Which it does not.
it's already installed, we don't need to spend trillions to replace it and update to new stuff
Yes, we do.
most states operate on a budget deficit as well and can't keep up with crumbling infrastructure, where are they going to find the ability to do this?
Well, maybe if these states were united in some way, then there might be some way we could collaborate as a people toward needed ends... Nah.
who is going to pay for the rollout of the new technology, it's not going to be the companies installing it
A lot of people that would make this point would also be instinctively opposed to any kind of government subsidy, like the tax deal that makes companies like Solar City pay to put solar on people's roofs in exchange for the long-term tax credits. I don't know if you share that view, but subsidy is a policy tool, a means to an end.
Jobs will be created but thousands will be lost when the coal workers are out of jobs
Guess what? Obama didn't kill the coal industry, and Trump's not saving it.
it's way more feasible and economical to stay the course
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Commented in If renewable energy can power entire countries, why isn't everyone doing it?
My own country, Australia, is rich in renewable resources and has the money to invest, yet only around 15 percent of electricity is sourced from renewables.
They claim they have enough money, but do they really, Governments run on huge deficits, for the most part, they could go into more debt for it and are probably good for it, but is it cost-effective?
Wind power can be sent straight to the electric grid, or stored in a battery. The trouble with the latter is that, at the moment, batteries big enough to store lots of energy are expensive.
Batteries are expensive, but let's not forget that a country like the USA is large, not postage stamp sized like the often quoted Iceland, which coincidentally didn't go Green suddenly but started in 1904. The truth is that it would cost billions for each state to implement, on top of that you would have to get large batteries to store it, my understanding is battery production is in no way Green, batteries also don't last forever and need to be replaced, would there be an offset to the green revolution when they have to continue producing very unclean batteries?
If we could build enough of these pumped hydro stations as backup for the variability of solar and wind power, Stocks said, Australia could easily get all of its electricity from renewables.
We are again talking billions to install. The article talks about a cost of 3.3 Trillion if we don't do anything about global warming by 2050, we are probably talking the same figures or more to replace the old system.
"If there's uncertainty around politics, then things grind to a halt," Stocks said.
As does money it would cost to update and install.
"But the struggle is on the political, institutional, cultural areas, trying to get movement from governments and industries that are tied to the past."
In the US, a country that Stanford University says has more than enough resources to run entirely on renewables, the goal is 30 percent by 2025.
These last two quotes go together for me. We are tied to the past, it's already installed, we don't need to spend trillions to replace it and update to new stuff. The goal at this time is to phase out the old and in the new, but this article makes it sound like they should do it immediately, the Stanford study even claimed: "Geothermal energy was available at a reasonable cost for only 13 states." But they don't say what they think is reasonable, or how those states could pay for it, most states operate on a budget deficit as well and can't keep up with crumbling infrastructure, where are they going to find the ability to do this?
The Stanford study also says...
So the overall cost spread over time would be roughly equal to the price of the fossil fuel infrastructure, maintenance and production.
"When you account for the health and climate costs – as well as the rising price of fossil fuels – wind, water and solar are half the cost of conventional systems," Jacobson said. "A conversion of this scale would also create jobs, stabilize fuel prices, reduce pollution-related health problems and eliminate emissions
They never talk the actual costs in either the fossil fuel or supposed lower costs of green, you can't compare because they don't give you numbers you are just supposed to take their studies word for it... The second part of that quote is that green will cost half of the fossil fuels, sure in theory, but who is going to pay for the rollout of the new techno...
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Commented in Alien Asteroids Are Here, Scientists Say. Get Used to Them.
This doesn't seem like such a big deal to me. I'd assumed that at least some of the stuff in our solar system might have come from outside of it, it doesn't seem that surprising to me. But maybe I just don't know enough astronomy to find it surprising.
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Commented in Scientists Hit Back: Another Paper Claims 100% Renewables is Possible and Affordable
"these solutions are absolutely affordable, especially given the sinking costs of wind and solar power."
That's all it says for cost, sure you can call it affordable if you want but I can't afford the cost of Solar on my home, and it's crazy to claim it's affordable to build out a network for the entire country that isn't going to cost a lot to roll out, and by a lot we're probably talking trillions. I already have to cut back on electric use because I'm now paying more and more every year for a nuclear plant I didn't ask for that is a hundred years behind schedule with skyrocketing costs.
I like the California approach by requiring it on new construction though and would support that anywhere.
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Commented in How Often Do People Use Guns In Self-Defense?
My take:
A firearm is a tool, like any other tool, there to be used when or if needed, like the pressure washer in my garage that gets pulled out every 3 years or so. Or the Hilti drill my father left me that I've never used but might someday (probably not).
The only civilians (non-war) who use firearms offensively are criminals. Home invasion happens and I shoot the people who weren't kind enough to knock, that's not offense. The threat is the defense, kind of like an ICBM, you don't have to use it for it to be effective at its job.
As soon as there is a gun restriction proposal that actually impacts criminals with guns (nearly exclusively hand guns) rather than those that legally own them, 2A supporters (including the NRA) would probably be willing to engage in a reasonable discussion. Banning rifles (which seems to be the end game) will be as effective at gun violence prevention as banning drugs has been (and those we can't even keep out of prisons).
My grandfather used his (now mine) .30-06 to put food on the table in lean times. I've taken it to the range a few times, and I know I have it in the event of a zombie apocalypse, a Carrington level solar event, or Yellowstone lets go. (Really it's just another tool I will pass to my son, like my father's Hilti).
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Commented in Portugal runs on renewable power for the whole of March
There are now solar farms here in North Carolina,so yeah,it's happening.