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2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/sci/ - Science & Math

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3023841 No.3023841 [Reply] [Original]

Do you prefer solar energy?

>> No.3023844

To what? Throat cancer? Sure.

>> No.3023855

Solar panels are expensive to make and the amount of pollution that is made just to produce a panel.

>> No.3023857

Should have some kind of Photovoltaic system installed on any newly built home etc and people should be encouraged to install them (i.e. grants for professionals to do it)

But i'd rather we shit money at Nuclear power, more so for Thorium fuelled ones

>> No.3023859

It's better than nothing at all.

Fortunately we have more ecologically safe energy production methods, like nuclear.

>> No.3023862

>>3023844
I lol'd

on topic: all the sustainable energy stuff has to be utilised together. in conjunction with nuclear.

>> No.3023864

Fuck solar. Tidal energy all the way.
>Tapping into the rotational kinetic energy of the Earth, using the Moon as a stator

>> No.3023892

solar panels are a great idea, but still not really economical for most locales

-and no, government programs handing out money to help you buy them is not 'economical', it just costs you in other ways you aren't aware of

.......

before you start worrying about alternate ways to generate power though, first the amounts used by typical homes should be minimized by design

>> No.3023898

I've always wondered...If I install some sort of solar energy collection array, arrange some way of storing said power for the evening (under the assumption that I live in an area that receives constant sunlight and little to no overcast), am I essentially free of the energy monopoly of the power companies? or do they get at me some other way?

>> No.3023904

>first the amounts used by typical homes should be minimized by design
this, everyone always complains about how much everything costs or pollutes or when it will run out and that we should look for alternatives when it is much easier to first lower the amount we use. for example gas is cheaper than water but no-one complains about the price of water going up. its just that people use so much gas in their 7km/l cars that they think gas is, expensive, where someone who gets 20km/l doesn't think so.

>> No.3023914

>>3023857
>But i'd rather we shit money at Nuclear power, more so for Thorium fuelled ones

This.

and \thread, because Thorium is the last word.

>> No.3023917

>>3023898
Yes, that's what a lot of homes do. Though they stay connected to the power grid and when it's sunny and the panel produce more power than they use the power get sent to the grid. When it's cloudy/night time and they use more power than the panels produce they pull power from the grid. The power company then checks the balance and usually there will be more solar power gathered than grid power used so you'll get a cheque from the power company for whatever amount of power you produced for them.

There's also ways to be completely "off the grid" but that's for hippies/conspiracy theorists/people who live in remote areas.

>> No.3023918

>>3023898
Pretty much, so long as you can generate enough. If you have a car though, then you are still at the mercy of oil companies and shit. I don't know how much energy an electric car needs, but I doubt PVs would cut it.

>> No.3023934

>>3023918
PVs while on the road is obviously impractical; on a sunny day, a good solar car will crank MAYBE 3 HP. However, using them to charge a battery - most likely just from a fixed array at home, but possibly from a portable panel atop the car - would allow you to have a streetable amount of power when driving without sacrificing energy independence.

>> No.3023979
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3023979

Space-based solar is the only thing that we can continuously use until we become a Type 2 civilization.

http://inventorspot.com/articles/spacebased_solar_cells_could_bea_7507

>> No.3023984

Itt people who have never heard of artificial leaves

>> No.3024097

Solar power has always seemed elegant to me, at least in theory. It's a power source we don't have to worry about depleting and if it does disappear we have other things to worry about than cheap electricity.

However. As it stands now, solar power seems far to inefficient for now. Wind and wave power are really just solar power once removed, and suffer the same drawbacks.

But in the long term, I think solar power is absolutely essential, unless we get some efficient fusion power going.

>> No.3024411

>>3023841
>>3023841

Almost all energy produced today is solar energy.

Oil and coal are solar energy. Biofuel is solar energy. Wind is solar energy.

Direct sun to electricity conversion is wasteful and inefficient though.

>> No.3024433

>>3024411
Even nuclear is solar. You need a super-nova to create radioactive elements.