Renewable Energy Domination

[@martinfletcher2729]

Just for a moment imagine being a secondary school student in 1969 (I was). Humans had just landed on the moon and almost anything seemed possible. Your physics teacher asks the class to draw what a home might look like in the year 2024. You draw a picture of a dwelling that has a roof that can convert energy from the sun into electricity. You tell the class that the energy powers the appliances of the home and there is so much energy that the excess is stored in a home battery or exported for your neighbors to use. There would be a few snickers from your class mates. Then you show them the device that charges the family car. The snickers turn into laughter. I have had an EV for 2 years. There is still a sense of wonderment when I fill it with sunshine.

[@BrentonSmythesfieldsaye]

That is a great post, painting the picture very well. I also experience the same wonderment your refer to. There is unfortunately, even today and after all that time has passed and with all that happening with energy systems today, those people that are willing to engage in the type of laughter you refer to. Oh well, their loss!

[@autohmae]

The good thing is, you could do it the past, but the economics are now so good it will automatically take over as the main source of production.

[@Praisethesunson]

I love a home model based around solar power. Good show.

[@johnowens8992]

Then money was decoupled from gold, so most wealth was printed not created

[@user72974]

First, they laugh at you.

[@kristiansnelling9576]

Congratulations on reaching 600,000 subscribers!

[@Kevin_Street]

Yes! The big 6 and five zeroes! Hooray!

[@mddell24]

600,000 believes of "impossible" solutions, however, if you installed 300 x 100KWhr batteries (/house) you would be almost OK for a typical winter in Southern England. The only not very little issue is, where would you install 300 batteries. On 300 sqr meters of spare land of course. Best if you do not do the maths for the cost of the 300 batteries unless you are a firm believer in Tax Payer will pay solutions - good luck.

[@kristiansnelling9576]

@mddell24 You, like everyone else, are of course entitled to your opinion, but letting the world know of the ignorance and lack of understanding of both the problem and, just like any other engineering challenge, the reality that one size does not fit all and that maybe there are a myriad of solutions covered by the said chanel that those 600,000 subscribers might like to learn about. But it's OK, carry on living in the dark.

[@freeheeler09]

My whole point with solar is that it allows home and small business owners to produce and store power and thus compete with and even avoid doing business with the spectacularly corrupt and harmful electricity and fossil fuel monopolies and cartels. For the first time since horse transport and wood stove cooking and heat, we no longer have to go through crooked and price gouging electric utility and fossil fuel middlemen!

[@electricAB]

Well said! I find it amazing how many people accept being “slaves” to energy corporations. And even more so how vehemently some people will defend their slavery…

[@richdobbs6595]

Unfortunately, in most cases homes and small business owners can only compete via massive subsidies that shift cost to less well off renters. But it does allow you to feel good in sticking it to those cartels.

[@freeheeler09]

Rich, a few points. My wife and I have an EV for personal transportation and an ICE for work. We also have solar and are building up our battery bank as we can to completely go off grid. This is part of a retirement savings strategy. The solar will pay for itself soon, and it’ll take a few more years for the batteries to pay off. But, for 25 of the next thirty years that the odds say I’ll live in this house and drive cars, I will be getting the power for almost free. I’ll have aread pay for it. You will be paying through the nose for gas and electricity, more and more each year. Enjoy throwing your money down the drain. Another thing I can be smug about; by buying solar, batteries and an EV, I’m helping support technological innovation. And, the more people buy solar, batteries and EVs, the more economies of scale and manufacturing and other technological innovation will drive the price down for other people. Then, there is the whole decarbonization advantage. And, apartment dwellers in Germany and other countries can install solar on their balconies to help cut dependence on the cartels abs save money.,

[@faustinpippin9208]

true, all my "ring wing" friends love solar and evs for that reason (government independence)

[@freeheeler09]

Faust, I’m left of center, an environmentalist, pro education and science, I don’t hate gay people or people who worship gods I do not, etc. But I am also a low key disaster prepper. How anyone could not be given the increasing worldwide human population (another 2 to 4 billion of us completing for ever more scarce food, water and other resources), the impending environmental and societal collapses coming from pollution, environmental degradation, global warming, habitat loss, species extinctions, etc. Then there is the increasing wars and mass migrations, and the rise of right wing, corporate and other totalitarianism, and the collapse of formerly stable democratic republics in the US and elsewhere. So, I’m growing more and more of my own food, and I’ve got half a year of stored food, and am mostly energy independent, and I have good relationships with my community and neighbors, and have trained dogs for warning and other tools for self protection. No man is an island will become increasingly important as the poly crisis we and our kids are facing frays the fabric of civil society. will need to rely more on ourselves and our local communities to thrive.

[@ben_sch]

I love that your videos contain next to no fluff and always go straight to the meat with a little banter and segways in between. Fantastic presentation style, I wish more channels would adopt it.

[@Yanquetino]

We've come a long way since Fritts installed the first solar panel on a rooftop in NYC in 1881. My own array has generated 189 MWh for my home and EVs after nearly 14 years, saving 214.5 metric tons of greenhouse gases. It paid for itself years ago, and now… the energy is pure "gravy."

[@jean-doturgis3896]

That’s the equivalent of 100 Paris-New York flights, according to ADEME. Well done!

[@peace_brigades]

It shouldn't take solar 13 years to pay itself... Where do you live? what kind of policies does your government have? Let me guess: you live in the US, the country of oil barons.

[@Yanquetino]

@ It didn’t. As I said, it paid for itself YEARS ago.

[@AtulBhatia]

Your presentation was brilliant, and a fantastic update on what’s happening in the PV space today, an eye-opener even to a person like me who’s been following this industry and technology closely. I installed PV panels on my terrace 2 years ago, then bought an EV to make use of that cleanly. Despite a hostile usage policy by the local utilities company, my energy bills have dropped to a fourth of what they were earlier, even though I installed a very modest 3.2 KVA setup. I’m proud to say that I was a trailblazer in my modest society of just 50 villas, and that today there are several others who have not just installed PV and bought EVs, but far surpassed my own capacity and are now feeding the grid with some of that. I’ve received a lot of sceptic criticism from many - including some of my closest friends - who are petrol heads and climate-change deniers, but have kept my counsel, for I know that very soon they will open their eyes to the rapid progress that PV is making, and its undeniable, beneficial impact on climate change. Perhaps one day soon I’ll sneak this video into many of the groups that I’m on, and gloat to see the dawning look of comprehension on their collective burrowed-frow faces 😊

[@dpsdps01]

They'll change their tune as soon as the economic benefit becomes clear to them.

[@ben_sch]

Fantastic! Thanks for sharing.

[@FabioCapela]

About agrivoltaics often improving crops, there's a pretty good reason for that. Many of the crops we grow first evolved in the lower to mid strata of forests, meaning they evolved to be most productive when in the shade; this means having partial shade from solar panels above them actually brings them closer to their optimal environment, improving quality and reducing losses.

[@freeheeler09]

And, the partial shade cools plants and soils, reducing irrigation needs.

[@tomarmstrong1281]

A recent study has shown increase yeild in grapes and sugar content under solat panels.

[@hmbro3236]

It depends on the crop, many do not benefit from it

[@pixelfrenzy]

@@hmbro3236 Fabio said "Many of the crops ", not all of them.

[@tomarmstrong1281]

@ Fair comment. Run the trials. No reason to exclude grazing animals or market garden produce in poly tunnels.

[@animistchannel]

Thanks for the update and inspirations. I get an ironic kick out of people mentioning the "end of life cycle" for PV panels. Er... they don't actually end any time this century, per se. They lose some efficiency, or it becomes worthwhile to replace them with newer more efficient models/formulas of panels on the same space, perhaps. The "life cycle" type estimates given for particular panels are usually for when they will degrade to a particular 90% or 80% of their original ability. You can totally leave them out there doing that for decades more, until it is worth it as an accounting decision to invest in new/upgraded ones. There are people who put up solar panels in the 1980's who are still running them 40+ years later and still getting 70-80% useful return. Modern panels will have useful life expectancies more like 100+ years, so if 1% of them per year get rotated out, it keeps up the total fleet. The thing about solar + storage is that it is a total cumulative effect that will eventually dominate away almost anything else. It is so long-lasting and low-maintenence and increasingly economical to install in more and more locations, that it will simply swell up organically until it has fulfilled almost the entire grid-use and transportation sector. We're just at the beginning of the curve even now, when it is passing from "futuristic" to "everyday sensible." As PV+bat becomes more of an automatic utility function of buildings themselves, it will almost passively take over across time. Yes, specific applications like geothermal (which given the new laser tech could actually become the main base load generator), or wind farms where applicable, or modular thorium for heavy industrial zones, will still be good bonuses; but the general market will just slowly get saturated with solar+bat because it is so easy to work it in until it becomes post-scarcity.

[@alan2102X]

THANIKS FOR THIS VERY EXCELLENT COMMENT. It should be added that cooling the panels greatly increases their life expectancy; a century or even two would be a reasonable expectation. There was a company that produced a panel-cooling tech, but it apparently went out of biz, not sure why. It looked like a clear winner. Maybe bad implementation, bad marketing, financial probs, management probs, who knows? But someone should be working on this.

[@mortenprehn7964]

My PV array here in Denmark produce up 1 MWh in a good summer month. In a poor winter month it produce 0.04 MWh. I like my PV panels, but I can't suffice with just that and batteries won't help.

[@animistchannel]

@@mortenprehn7964 Yah in such a high-latitude cloudy area, your area would be one of those good geothermal and/or wind supplement candidates.

[@keptick]

@@mortenprehn7964 Yea solar is definitely not as good in northern countries. But thankfully a lot of us have tons of hydro or wind opportunities. Here in eastern canada most of our power comes from giants dams up north.

[@adr2t]

Thats what I have to explain to these people that say they degrade every time. They can still be reuse for smaller projects like power a shed for light or even powering a wireless AP unit. Just because they produce less doesnt mean they're worthless. If anything that gives them another life before hitting the recycling plant.

[@rmar127]

I love that little old Australia 🇦🇺 is leading the world in household solar pv. What I don’t like is that we are way behind the 8 ball when it comes to household battery 🔋 storage. Due to our poor political system where one party is firmly in the pockets of the fossil fuel industry and the other major party lacks the fortitude to do what is right, there are close to zero incentives for HBS. Yesterday was a classic example. 38°C, stinking high humidity and even with running my a/c all day I still exported approximately 25kw to the grid but then had to pull energy from the grid at 6 x the price I exported . If however, I’d had a battery installed, I could have run my a/c all night and had a comfortable nights sleep, all the while use the energy I’d produced during the day.

[@robinbennett5994]

I think that incentive will appear pretty soon naturally. At some point in the next few years there will be so much solar that they'll stop paying for exported power, and then it will make sense to store it for later.

[@aussie405]

I am in Perth. Like you, I made more power than I needed yesterday, including running 2 air conditioners. The difference is, I do have a 15kWh battery. I am still working out the best way to use it but... 15kWh is too much for my normal home use, until I use it for my ev. I have my ev set to charge from 3am. That takes yesterday's left over sunshine and saves it in the car. By the time the sun takes over charging the car, the home battery is down to 10 to 20%. The solar system essentially gets an extra 3.5hours of granny charging into my ev, even though it is night time. That is an extra 40+ km of range (280km per week) not to mention the charging that happens in the day. When combined with an ev, my battery is helping me save about $3000 per annum in petrol plus $1200 per annum in electricity. When you do get a battery go modular. Even 5kWh covers a significant amount of my night tiime use in the house. Adding an extra 5kWh provides everything I use in the house at night (your mileage may differ) the final 5kWh really wasn't necessary, but it extends the hours for granny charging the car. My panels will recharge the battery by noon today. The cost of the entire system was about $24000. Since I am now self sufficient in electricity and no longer pay for petrol, the time to recoup the money is about six years. We will be getting another ev soon and I think we will just alternate which car gets fed overnight. The numbers already make sense when a battery is combined with an ev.

[@theharper1]

I know exactly your frustration. I have a 6.6kW solar PV system and yesterday generated 34kWh of electricity and only used 3.4kWh from the grid, but can't afford a 5kWh battery to cope with that evening load. Meanwhile, the electricity company pays me 6c/kWh for the excess I put into the grid, then charges me over 30c/kWh for anything from the grid, plus a daily connection fee. In Australia, the coal generators are creating the need to turn off home solar at peak times because the coal generators can't easily be ramped up or down. It's all very well to talk about EVs absorbing some of the excess load, but few people have their EVs plugged in when they are at work, and most people drive to work because the public transport systems can't carry everyone who commutes. If people drive their EV to a train station and park in a commuter car park, the EV isn't connected as a load either. Meanwhile, many businesses are discouraging working from home. For me also, the EV solution is not affordable.

[@ianloy1854]

www.youtube.com/@OffGridGarageAustralia is a great place to see about batteries in Queensland. For ~$2500 south pacific pesos you can get a 15kW 48V battery. Choosing a hybrid invertor that takes 48V and your basically done - 48V is low voltage - typically doesn't even require an electrician 😃 (always check in your state).

[@aussie405]

@@theharper1 I hear what you are saying. I am lucky to be in a position to do this and I am trying to get into the best position to lower my day to day expenses as I move toward retirement. Spending on major capital improvement (the solar system) will lower my daily costs on an ongoing basis. And I will be income poor, so that matters. If/when the government starts giving help on batteries, even a relatively small one will mean you don't have to buy back at the peak rate. My battery is more useful than my son's in Canberra. Weirdly, that is because I am on single phase. You really need to find someone who knows how to work out what will work best for you.

[@joelado]

PV solar is a no brainer. If we do get the efficiency improvements from the perovskite-on-silicon tandem solar cells that are being installed now for commercial applications from Oxford PV the amount of area needed for solar in the UK will go down to 1.5%. If we find a way to get more of that installed on roof tops the amount of land needed drops some more. If we, like you talked about, combine it with agriculture by installing bifacial solar vertically with the sun coming from the east to west or just high enough to allow for planting & grazing underneath again the impact of adding solar is lessened. Cheaper & more efficient solar is being installed now making the future of decarbonized energy brighter & brighter.

[@freeheeler09]

Between residential and appropriate box store and other roofs, and also parking lots, there’s your 3%!

[@stringlarson1247]

I need to start looking at it again. I'm busy rewiring, replumbing, and fixing the foundation on my 1913-built home. Plus about a hunnert other things that are priorities. Having spent my career as an EE and software engineer, I'm definitely not an early adopter, but things have changed quite a bit in recent years.

[@Roxor128]

10 million buildings times 5kW each gives 50GW. That's roughly Australia's entire grid capacity, or a significant chunk of a more populous country's needs covered without needing new poles and wires.

[@joelado]

​@@Roxor128 "According to National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) analysis in 2016, there are over 8 billion square meters of rooftops on which solar panels could be installed in the United States, representing over 1 terawatt of potential solar capacity." U.S. Department of Energy According to U.S. EIA the United States uses about 10.5 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity per day, as of October 2024. I think there is enough roof space. 👍

[@neiljessop3510]

Of course using rail and road verge areas and not just agricultural land will also increase the percentage of land available to use.

[@dorothymoller566]

First, let me say how sorry I am that you get harassed the way you do by commenters. I previously made a comment on one of your videos only to endure similar harassment. I do not understand humans. So, here goes again. Second, I don’t understand why these technologies are standard for new construction. My grandparents powered their midwestern farm with a windmill in the 1930s. And as a child I can remember seeing houses throughout the Japanese countryside that had primitive solar collectors on their roofs. Getting power as close to the point of use just makes more sense in terms of efficiency.

[@FabioCapela]

It's also good in other ways, in particular when coupled with local storage. And, more interestingly, for off-grid systems you don't really need the help, and often not even the authorization, of the government; Pakistan is one example of this, they have pretty expensive electricity thanks to a government deal to provide the country with electricity from private gas plants but solar with storage is seeing such rapid adoption that roughly a third of the electricity used in the country already comes from (often off-grid) rooftop solar, installed by the property owners themselves without any help or incentive from the government.

[@dorothymoller566]

@ Yeah. I remember building houses in Africa a few years back and being shocked that there wasn’t more solar in outlying communities. I was told that government monopolies made it difficult and costly. Same thing happens in some parts of the US. Fortunately, that’s changing. I saw the Moroccan facility when it was being built. I can’t imagine why any developing country would use legacy energy technology.

[@jpt3640]

Yeah but at least in Germany neither the government nor the energy companies want decentralized pv because they won't earn as much money.

[@Axobattler]

​@@FabioCapelato be fair, criminally unaffordable prices for often lifesaving services, seems like a pretty strong incentive

[@robinbennett5994]

I think the answer to this one is just that solar panels have only become cheap in the last few years, and building regulations change very slowly. Also the government has been worried that too much solar would lead to an unstable grid. Again, it's only very recently that batteries have become an economical way to store power overnight. Here in the UK, housing developers can now gain a few points towards their Energy Performance Certificate by fitting PV, and thus save money elsewhere. That's lead to lots of new houses with the smallest system they can get away with, often only 4 panels.

[@SeanLumly]

I remember the chorus of arguments from ~10 years ago, suggesting renewables didn't make sense, and that nuclear was the only realistic "green" technology.

[@Doug-tc2px]

That argument holds true today and we are seeing a resurgence in investment towards nuke power, NLR etf is up100% over the last two years. Just one stat - The new NVIDA semiconductor when implemented in America will consume as much energy as a medium size country, add EVs to demand...While the advancements in solar is great it's not enough to meet demand and few realize solar is geographic in nature, example Solar in California produces 5x more energy than in Germany.

[@PolygonSwan]

@@Doug-tc2px Yeah hybrid approach tailored to context will always be best, nuclear compliment would allow the green to be greener

[@macmcleod1188]

​@@Doug-tc2pxwell true, it's not a sign that nuclear is the only "realistic" Green technology. It's an expensive, dirty technology with unpredictable cost structures and most of the costs are dumped on people who aren't even born yet and who will never receive power from the nuclear plants. But nuclear makes sense in certain climates where there's not much wind and not much light. Germany's already had days where they produce 100% of their power for renewable. Germany is mostly a matter of adding additional solar panels, additional windmills, additional sand-based district heating "batteries", add additional large-scale battery packs. There may be a use case for nuclear but it is a thirsty beast and Germany was having water problems to summers ago and had to run their nuclear reactors on a restricted basis as did France. The world is only getting hotter with dryer summers. We might end up in a hybrid mode where alternative energy fills the Gap in the summer and nuclear energy runs during the winter. But that's going to be costly. Indeed some states have already had to lay additional taxes on their citizens to subsidize the nuclear industry in the United states.

[@dosadoodle]

@@Doug-tc2px Did someone say we should solely depend on solar around the world? And solar being a better deal in California than it is in Germany doesn't mean it is a bad deal in Germany.

[@FabioCapela]

@@Doug-tc2px The thing is, solar backed by batteries is already cheaper per kWh generated even for a place like Germany - which is why Germany already has one of the highest amounts of solar power generated per capita in the world. Nuclear is only economically feasible in very niche applications. Also, we have more than enough space to install enough renewables to cover our energy needs many times over. Offshore floating solar could do it by itself. As could offshore wind (or, better yet, a combination of the two). As could just covering every roof in solar panels. As could just replacing biofuel crops with solar panels. As could just using agrivoltaics on all crops whose productivity isn't hindered by it. As would using solar farms to set up green belts around deserts to contain their spread, the way China is doing. And so on, there is such an abundance of places and ways to generate renewable power that we shouldn't run out of places to produce renewable energy without having to clear new land for it in the next century at least.

[@kentw.england2305]

PV should be installed where the demand is. utilities be damned.

[@Doug-tc2px]

In many States power produces where given the soul rights in exchange for the capital cost to build power plants and transmit power. Nevada was the first to address this as far as I know, the solar industry and homeowners who invested in solar lost. Bottom line is before you jump onto solar for your home do your homework to make sure the local power producer don't have the legal rights. This may seem unfair but its not, these companies invested billions for the right and are regulated.

[@pixelfrenzy]

@@Doug-tc2px We don't all live in the USA. Would be interesting to know how the legal situation varies around the world. Is it true that in some US states you're not even allowed to be completely off-grid?

[@Doug-tc2px]

@@pixelfrenzy True that, I'm from the west coast of Canada where our energy comes from Hydro so solar will never cover the enviro cost of building it as we already use clean energy.

[@aarocamero1013]

Indubitably

[@williammeek-h2o]

especially the last bit

[@oakfieldfarm4131]

Nice one Dave - bit less of a bummer than some of ‘em 😊

[@Praisethesunson]

Yet another reminder that the future of global energy production is to keep calm and PRAISE THE SUN!!

[@emceeboogieboots1608]

Ra Ra Ra!

[@user-cr4pz5yg7y]

Religion will block out the sun.

[@nurmihusa7780]

Archaeologists are beginning to understand that ancient Rome didn’t burn trees down for all their energy. If you ask most people even historians they would tell you oh yeah they had to burn wood. What archeologists are discovering is that they burned the waste left after pressing olives for olive oil - oil production was huge across the Roman and Hellenistic world. When you’ve squeezed all the comestible oil out you end up with a very burnable mass of crushed olive flesh, pit, with some unrecoverable residual oil. They formed it into bricks, let it dry in the sun and then burned it for industrial production for example. They are discovering that a lot of the industrial pottery works which need kilns weren’t in cities they were out in the countryside near the olive orchards where where there was a readily available fuel source that otherwise would go to waste.

[@davidwatson8118]

Cyprus burned it's forests at least 5 times over to smelt copper, leaving it's island bare and denuded.

[@animistchannel]

Thanks for reporting that! It's interesting how some societies learn to be sustainable in some ways, even if they aren't in some others. It shows that there are various threads of thought running through a people at the same time.

[@timtravelnomad]

​@@animistchannelunfortunately Cyprus has never learned. Cyprus is probably the sunniest country in europe, and has among the lowest renewable energy penetration. The government burns imported Oil to generate electricity.

[@leonlowenstadter9223]

As far as I know, the Romans cut their forests to build ships.

[@MalcolmRose-l3b]

If you want your olive trees to keep producing they need to be pruned regularly. I burn about 3 cubic metres of olive wood each winter taken from my neighbour's farm. None of the trees are cut down, they just lose branches.

[@peterpicroc6065]

My offgrid pv- panels from 2004 still perform to their original spec’s. And even when at some point they do start to degrade, the most efficient thing to do is to keep using them. Suppose at some future time they perform at 80%. To get back to 100% I could either scrap the whole installation and buy 100% new capacity. Or leave them up and buy 20% new capacity. Pretty clear which option my financial advisor, i.e. my very self, would recommend. Another angle is that after 30 or 40 years the electricity from those old panels is free. Replacing an installation working at 70% means spending 100% to gain 30%.

[@Ryan-ff2db]

If the worlds roads had solar panels over them(canopy) it would produce roughly 2/3rds of the worlds electricity. If every rooftop had solar it would produce twice what we currently use. Also, covering aqueducts could produce electricity while helping reduce water evaporation. I don't expect all this to happen, this is more a comparison of land use.

[@pixelfrenzy]

India has been building PV installations over waterways for a while now, and floating PV seems to have been taking off in Asia as well.

[@GTN3]

I like the idea of providing shade for all parking areas by using PVs.

[@danyoutube7491]

I wonder if shading roads could help reduce maintenance costs as well, by narrowing the range of temperature the tarmac experiences.

[@Ryan-ff2db]

@@danyoutube7491 Sounds logical but for sure it would reduce accidents from sun glare, snowfall and heavy rains.

[@Ryan-ff2db]

@@GTN3 Yeah, I didn't even include that in my comment. There's plenty of dual purpose area's that could reduce or eliminate large solar farms if we were smart about it. This doesn't even include other forms of renewables either.

[@Heimbasteln]

The only real issue with PV is the winter in areas far from the equator like northern Europe. Storing the electricity from the day into the night is easy, but storing the electricity in the summer for the winter is almost impossible. Thats why we also need a lot of wind energy, as it is usually stronger in winter.

[@Sairfecht]

Indeed, I was looking at the UK stats today: 24% of power generation from UK wind (on and off shore) and the plan is to double that by 2030 (well, that’s the aim). 40% during the recent storm. But what of dunkleflaut?

[@adr2t]

Not totally - it mainly comes down to storage. We will go from hours -> to days -> to weeks -> to finally months. After that, it mainly comes down to meeting the needs for a period of time. Aka, if we can recover by end of the month - then you only need as much PV as you need to recover from or at least bring back up peeker plants. The golden zone would be around 6 months of storage. Once you hit that, you can pretty much drop any need for peeker plants and even wind and just add on PV as needed to match demand for night time use. Of course, this is more limited to areas that have more sun. Aka, if you are way North - then solar doesnt make sense at all, but you are also not dealing with as many people too.

[@hemablokker]

Thanks

[@denniseuanmorgan9245]

When are we going to hear that all new builds have PV’s as standard on the roof!

[@petewright4640]

Labour have just backed out of making that mandatory after pressure from the building industry. It's going to be 'recommended'. Such an easy win that most people would have supported. 😢

[@xxwookey]

More significant would be new builds being at least carbonlite level 2 (50 kWh/m2.yr heat load) and preferably passivehouse (15 kWh/m2.yr). Nothing wrong with solar on the roof too, but building up-front emissions and in-use emissions make a much bigger difference than panels on the roof, and for the entire lifetime of the building. Having a decent fabric efficiency makes it possible for the roof-generated energy to run the whole house for at least most of the year. For current average fabric efficiency the roof simply isn't big enough. At the moment the SAP regulations strongly encourage builders to make mediocre buildings with poor airtightness, then whack about 3 panels on the roof to get it into the next EPC class. It's not good long-term policy as it bakes in a great deal of ongoing energy usage.

[@adus123]

@@xxwookey We should be doing both Builders don't care about the people who are going to live in them houses. All they care about is profit, So they can drive around in their Gas guzzlers and sip wine in there jacuzzis.

[@williammeek-h2o]

i would argue that roofs are not ideal. ground mount arrays are better, especially if over something like a patio where they can provide shade

[@xxwookey]

@@williammeek-h2o 'better' in what sense? Easier to DIY, provides some shade, but also: usually less area, nearly all houses have a roof, not all have a patio, more likely to be shaded

[@geoffdraper138]

Hi Dave, I love your "Just Have A Think" ! Re renewables, people often talk about the mismatch between solar (or wind) power production, and the demand profile. Hence the need for batteries etc. What people seem to NOT talk about is the similar mismatch between coal-fired production and the demand profile. A coal station can, and should, run 24/7. But demand fluctuates wildly over the week, with low demand at night and at weekends. So it's just as logical to have storage for coal-fired electricity as for renewably-generated electricity. It was seldom done, one exception being pumped hydro. Which I suppose just underlines the fact it was needed. Result? More generation capacity was built than the average load called for - you need to build to suit peak load. And the coal plant sits mostly idle when demand is low. So the need for storage is not new, and is not peculiar to solar and wind. Just a thought!

[@christopherlawrence7450]

Agreed here in Michigan. We have a large pumped hydro along Lake Michigan that supported the two nuclear plants along lake Michigan

[@Off-Grid]

We've lived off-grid for four years now in a +4k square foot house. It is getting easier and easier to install these systems. At some point it's going to be as routine as getting a new appliance. We'll never go back on the grid, there's no reason to.

[@danyoutube7491]

While being self sufficient has benefits so too does being connected - if your home system fails for some reason (even if it is decades from now) it would be useful to have an outside source to immediately get you back up and running, especially if your heating runs on electricity (I'm not saying yours does, but that seems to be the direction that the government and many experts want the country to go in) and you happen to be in the middle of a cold winter.

[@FlintStone-c3s]

Our SE Qld suburb of 5000 houses lost power for 2 hours. We had panels since 2012 but without battery backup they are useless. The biggest part of our power bill is the services charges which are now bigger than our original non solar total bill. Blackouts are a "Service". They tired to give us a new powermeter that has the ability to switch off our power anytime they want.

[@Off-Grid]

@@danyoutube7491 I agree, however the power went out all the time when we were on grid at various times during the year. If we lose power now for some reason we have a generator to get us by and are lucky to have equipment redundance in place for the solar as well. We also used a generator when on-grid and the power went out. Another good thing to have is a solar generator. Simple and reliable.

[@Off-Grid]

@@FlintStone-c3s battery prices have really fallen over the past several years. You should look into them again. We originally started with AGM Lead Acid but just switched to lithium. When we bought the AGM batteries they were cheaper that lithium and safer. Now the lithium is way cheaper than the AGM and are now safer so it's flip flipped. Inverter prices have really fallen as well.

[@bradley2680]

@@FlintStone-c3s Qld Oz has a rather 'stupid' energy supply system. Batteries are NOT acceptable on its mandatory Grid system run by a Monopoly subservient to the single House State government - Qld is set up very poorly. Not a good example to use

[@andreasmall7556]

Your calm quiet voice supports your well researched facts.

[@wt29]

Then there is the fluoro sloppy Joe 😎

[@bobw9527]

They aren’t well researched, but the graphics, production and Dave are most worthy of Oscars in most categories. 👊🏼

[@aFEWwanderingALBINOS]

@@bobw9527how are they not well researched?

[@موسى_7]

​​@@aFEWwanderingALBINOS I think he might mean that Dave who made the video is scratching the surface

[@Kevin_Street]

Thanks for the new video! It seems clear now how the solar transition is progressing. First the sunniest countries, then the ones who have been providing major subsidies for solar power installation the longest. Battery storage increases in those countries. Then somewhere in there a solar panel recycling industry gets going, once there's enough demand for the material to make it economical. Then other nations start to use more and more solar because it's so cheap, until they've transitioned as well. Then the electrical grid gets renovated into something more integrated, efficient and responsive. Europe is clearly ahead with this, but the sheer economy of it will eventually convince North America to make the switch too. Though we'll see a lot more resistance and political fighting, you can't really argue with numbers. China will be all solar long before North America, but India is more of a question mark. As is South America.

[@spacelemur7955]

As for where to put solar panels: The US has basically a grid highway system oriented on the cardinal directions. Much of the topography is gently rolling. About half the roads run due east and west, which means, with the prevailing wide berms, incredibly long linear arrays can be built facing south. Many larger roads have ground devouring cloverleaf intersections, which might also be good candidates for solar panels. These sites would save valuable farmland for crops. Covering America's insanely large parking lots with panels would also make sense, and surely be appreciated for shading the cars while parked.

[@Hentgman91]

Yes! Parking lot solar is a win win!

[@davidwatson8118]

The roof of houses, businesses, factories, car parks etc is far better.

[@gramos9115]

Of course ! a great idea but the oiligarchs will stand firmly in the way of it .

[@RossBurrell-w8g]

Congratulations 🎉 Dave ! 600k subscribers 😊

[@Jaw0lf]

This is the way forward, cheapness of renewables vs big infrastructure for new power plants. Then add in the battery storage and we start to have a much cheaper and environmentally friendly way that our power needs are met. Loved that final video.

[@istiles1]

PV constructed over parking lots would not only provide electrical collection on a single use location, it'd also provide cover for the vehicles parked beneath it, an especially useful benefit in a very sunny climate such as parts of the desert SW of the US or large parts of Australia etc. Throw in agrivoltaics in similar locations and large parts of Africa, N & S America & Australia can become farming foci.

[@DrakeN-ow1im]

Using the greater part of the land area of most commercial outlets could produce an excess of electricity and add shade to the carparks and roofs of the buildings which would reduce energy use.

[@rondavison8475]

What to do with used solar panels: 1) Fence panels 2) Homeless shelter roofs and some electricity. 3) Wall coverings. for 20 or used in architecture with standard panel sizes so they can be replaced and still make power end of extended life. 3A) Over time recycling will get better, so re-use and delay of recycling add huge value. capitol non destruction, alone is a huge gain, with end of life extensions. 4) officially put in or make shift PV charging stations by volenteers for modest e-mobility charging spots

[@shawnholiday1635]

C'mon sir, just one more extremely thin wafer....

[@stevejones2310]

Good call😂

[@feedvid]

😂

[@stringlarson1247]

A wahfer thin mint.

[@andrewradford3953]

and don't skimp on the quails eggs!

[@mintakan003]

Solar may get so cheap someday that some people are thinking overbuilding 3x-5x, to help deal with the intermittency. Of course, this would be paired with batteries, at least for some level of time shifting, and buffering. How to size this is an optimization problem. (Tony Seba has worked out one suggestion.). The big issue then, is dealing with overabundance. Currently this is handled by curtailment. But if there were an economic model that makes use of intermittent excess (free energy), then this can justify the cost. It would have to be a demand sink that is low CapEx, and is fine with low capacity factor. Some people have suggested thermal storage as one possibility. This could be esp. important for industrial processes. There maybe other use cases. But it's an area that has yet to be explored, and could be a new market in itself.

[@ab-tf5fl]

I'm somewhat skeptical of this happening. No matter how cheap the manufacture of solar panels gets, there's still the cost of labor to install them and land to put them on. Neither of which is getting any cheaper.

[@kazafitzpatrick]

Thanks!

[@AnalystPrime]

People from the short bus keep repeating "but what about when there is no sun?" as if nobody had thought of it before, but the facts are that most people sleep at night and many more would not be working night shift if the night time electricity was not notably cheaper. We developed energy storage to store the excess electricity coal and nuclear plants produce at night that would be wasted otherwise and between the cheaper electricity and cheap light bulbs it became viable to stay up later or even work all through the night. With solar energy being almost free during day, maybe it becomes plausible that instead of buying huge batteries to keep the lights on at night companies will change their habits and do most of the work during day, which would lower the amount of energy needed at night time.

[@TomTom-cm2oq]

Great video! Thanks for the effort and the hard work. You are changing lives, and you should be rewarded.

[@petewright4640]

In the relatively crowded UK all suitable roofs should be fitted with solar. I'd like to see a figure that shows what percentage of our energy that would supply.

[@wintermath3173]

American here, do you guys have any big parking lots (car parks?)? Maybe up north? Those seem like a no-brainer as well. My favorite grocery store has solar over its parking lot which is really nice in the summer sun.

[@FabioCapela]

Likely over 100%, more so if you also include parking lots and other urban spaces and infrastructure where solar can be added without being an eyesore or hindering its use. One of Australia's states is approaching the point where if it added enough batteries it could power itself just from rooftop solar despite the fact only about a third of houses have rooftop solar, so even accounting for less sunlight in England it should be enough.

[@CraftyF0X]

I don't want to be a downer but what ppl tend to forget is that in big cities (where most ppl projected to live soon) tends to have high rises or even sky scrapers to save on space. This generally means that there is a high population density, available roofspace ratio. So it's unlikely that buildings with a certain base hight ratio could support their inhabitants just by PVs on top. For that reason, big cities with the highest energy demand will likely has to transport their solar power from distant places hurting both the physical and economical efficiencies.

[@pixelfrenzy]

Population density in the Netherlands is the highest in Europe (6th in the world) and they seem to be doing a fine job according to the stats in the video. Come on UK!

[@incognitotorpedo42]

@@CraftyF0X There's usually enough space not far from the city. It's not like you'd need to transport the power thousands of miles.

[@AngelRodriguez-qg5zq]

Everything was going well, I was with you until Al Gore showed up at the end of the video😂 Great stats👍🏻👌🏻

[@mellissadalby1402]

Not far from me, small farms have switched some of their fields to Solar power production to help them survive the volatility of the farming markets and increasinly unpredictable weather.

[@THG_101]

Very encouraging. It seems blatantly obvious that this shift is going to accelerate and is unstoppable, so we should ride the wave rather than trying to hold back the tide. It will benefit everyone eventually. Really hoping the cost of installing solar and batteries drops quickly. The fact that there is so much misinformation out there shows you how powerful the fossil fuel lobby still is, sadly.

[@EduNauta95]

Humanity will be set free from fossil fuels sooner or later. Let's hope sooner. Maybe not completely for vehicle propulsion, and for plastics. But, for the energy grid, DEFINITELY.

[@incognitotorpedo42]

Plastics are produced with fossil carbon, but it isn't burned. Thus it's not the same category as fuels. Vehicle propulsion appears to be headed toward clean tech. Batteries can now power cars, trucks, and motorcycles, as well as short haul aircraft. It looks like ships will be burning synthetic fuels like methanol or ammonia. It's only long haul aircraft that are still an unsolved problem, and they will be sorted soon enough.

[@skierpage]

Fossil _fuels_ refers to burning the dirty stuff. It is possible to make plastics from petrochemicals with less emissions, and by pulling carbon and hydrogen building blocks out of CO2 and water. Likewise we can make biofuels and renewable e-fuels. They're all a lot more expensive than burning the dirty stuff.

[@adrianthoroughgood1191]

The UK government has set a target of 2030 for getting the grid green. That's very soon!

[@marcofossa5741]

Great Dave ! you are one of my Reference Persons in Renewables and I am so grateful to you.. I am, maybe already told you, Full Professor teaching Solar and Geothermal Energies.. Please go on with "Intermittent" Energy Sources ! ;-)

[@glyngreen538]

I really need to get round to retraining as an electrician to install solar rather than working as a decorator. I’ve been thinking about doing so for ages and hopefully will in the next 2-3 years once I’ve finished paying some old debt down and got some ADHD meds by then to decrease the chance of accidentally electrocuting myself in a scatty moment. Good news with this video for once! :)

[@guringai]

That's what I would do if I wasn't so close to retirement!

[@richdobbs6595]

At least in America, employment in the industry is dependent on the whims of solar feed in tariffs. The cost for roof top solar here is several times that in Germany. My understanding is this is driven by inefficiencies in permitting and over-engineering of electrical systems since the regulation has been captured by the industry and guilds.

[@glyngreen538]

@@richdobbs6595 I’m in the UK luckily. Here we have a newly elected centre left government for a change (in our usage of the terms, would be very left by US usage of the terms). They’re declaring they want a massive boost to renewables and clean energy. So I’m hoping that plus the falling cost of panels would make it a growth industry and help me get work.

[@glyngreen538]

@@guringai I’m 42 myself so older than the usual apprentice (if I go down that route) but still young enough to work for a decent length of time.

[@guringai]

@glyngreen538 Thats how old I was when went bact to TAFE & uni to work in the energy & sustainability industries. Now 63. I'd often wished I did an apprenticeship with my sparky dad!

[@adr2t]

To me its a no brainer that PV is the way to go almost over any other method. The main and only issues I have with solar is the cost to install it follow by the cost of batteries that are still on the costly side even for just a few days. I wish governments would offer a "basic: install package on the cheap and companies didnt pocket the money as free - we could see more of it everywhere.

[@bobbresnahan8397]

When we talk about the role of utilities, most of the criticism is from the West and refers primarily to investor owned utilities. One fact is important. The fastest way to install solar and wind is in farms where hundreds of thousands of panels and loarge numbers of 1MW windmills can be installed in months. It's the fastest and cheapest way to transition to 100% emission-free energy. Add batteries and the problem of intermittency vanishes. Surpisingly, another problem of grids can also be addressed and dramatically reduced. Battery complexes can react to shortages and overages in grid supply in milliseconds. Pre-battery grids lost about 15% of generated electricity through overheating of the transmission and distribution wires and supporting technology. Batteries dramatically reduce that loss making all renewable grids even more beneficial. Solar, wind, and batteries along with some hydro and possibly a little nuclear will make energy dramatically cheaper than ever before. Think about this -- why would utilities not want this to happen? The answer is why we should make all utilities publicly owned or simply government owned.

[@incognitotorpedo42]

True. Thanks for pointing this out. All utilities should be publicly owned. Investor owned utilities are worse in every way.

[@busterwong2573]

I always like to give a hat-tip to Amory Lovins, who wrote and spoke extensively about EVs being a battery storage asset back in the 1980s, maybe even earlier.

[@alan2102X]

He deserves many hat tips for many things.

[@davidbaker5561]

Maybe older solar panels being replaced because they are less efficient than newer panels, could be sent to poorer countries with more sun, where they would probably produce an acceptable amount of electricity once re sited on cheaper land with more sunlight.

[@DrakeN-ow1im]

Reusing of photovoltaic panels is quite usual where their loss of efficiency can be compensated by increasing their numbers - large roofs of single story buildings/sheds/stockyards/etc.

[@ncandrew1215]

Fantastic, Dave! As always! Thanks again for the upwards mood bump!!

[@anguscampbell1533]

A German company has a PV Panel design that folds up fo storage much like an accordian. It can be stored inside a garage or shed when weather is threatening or if need to be transported elsewhere and unfolded into a driveway, parking lot or field when needed. The designs for PV Panels that are available are many and many are quite useful.

[@giddyup3451]

Yes, aren't we lucky in Australia. Highest per capita in solar... So lucky, that the gov now wants to switch them off during peak production to stabilise the grid. It also protects the energy wholesalers who refused to prepare the grid for the increase in solar.

[@howtoappearincompletely9739]

The synergy of power generation and crop growth seen in "agrivoltaics" is particularly encouraging.

[@THG_101]

Yes - I wish this message was getting out more so that it's not always seen as a "food vs energy" zero sum game. That and the message that only 3% of our land is needed to decarbonise the grid.

[@Vitan89]

We need more cautious optimism for renewables. As great as they are, we are nowhere close to reaching net zero goals in time if we don't cut down on energy use.

[@nononsenseBennett]

A pergola built with PV...Brilliant

[@wintermath3173]

I would love to have one of those in my neighborhood.

[@phillsmith1901]

That's what I built last spring and a car port. Paid for itself in a year. 450W panels are now £25, leccy is about 20p. Only about a month to pay for a panel these days.

[@nononsenseBennett]

@@phillsmith1901 Did you make a video about it by chance? Curious to see it

[@phillsmith1901]

@@nononsenseBennett unfortunately not sorry. I built flitch beams to hold the weight over the long span of the driveway, then put Trina panels on top. Between each panel I used silicone sealant, wanted to use T-profile rubber but couldn't find any at a decent price. The panels are attached to 2x4s which span across the three long flitch beams. To attach the panels I cut a lenght of 90 degree aluminium in to 1 inch brackets and drilled a hole in both sides, used small nuts and bolts to attach to the panel frame then screw in to the 2x4. Might film the next project, good idea.

[@nononsenseBennett]

@@phillsmith1901 I just found out that PV is going to get more efficient withe the use of peroxite. Exciting times ahead!

[@michaelharrison1093]

One of the really valuable aspects of PV is that if it is deployed on city building rooftops it is not only a source of energy but also a energy delivery mechanism that provides energy where you need it. People are quick to criticize that the intermittency of PV means that the energy is not provided when it is needed but what needs to be understood is that it can be easily created where it is needed. Producing energy when it is needed but not where it is needed has its own challenges so in contrast producing energy where it is needed, just not when it is needed is not really that bad. Add some energy storage to the mix and PV is a very good solution for the future world energy needs

[@incognitotorpedo42]

More and more people are adding batteries to their solar systems. This is particularly true now that Net Metering is going away.

[@andym4695]

OK, let's assume that 2/3 of our power is provided by fossil fuels at night, and only 1/3 of that is provided by PV during the day. We've still cut our carbon emissions by a third. I see two culprits here: 1) fossil fuel companies. 2) people who desperately want to return to the good ol' days, including cars that go "vroom! vroom!" My guess is that these people will get steamrollered at some point.

[@incognitotorpedo42]

The flaw in your analysis is that power demand plummets at night. It's a very predictable pattern.

[@Brinslade]

The solutions are there for making our air cleaner and reducing costs through renewables, but changing the attitudes towards these changes needs incentives to motivate the change. This seems to be where governments need to take the lead and help people with the expense of making these upgrades to homes and other infrastructure to create noticeable changes. The Chinese, Dutch and Norwegians seem to have the top down support to implement and incentivize changes to greener energy, which is in turn powering economic growth in these regions.

[@danshillabeer9523]

Always appreciate the links Dave.

[@NickGj-k7v]

Great and wonderful presentation about renewable Sun Energy. When I hear that this industry has 7000000 employees who contribute 1200 GW new power on year 2023 this talks. I will get apriory that on average every employ on this industry will get 40000 $/year and together they will get 280 Bilion dollars. This certainly is great because 1200 GW power when installed may have efficiency 10-19% ano on average 12%. These are based on some public data about PV. On average 1200 GW PV may generate 1261 TWh/year electricity and this energy only for salaries will have a cost 0.222 $/kwh. This really is great because the energy is clean, but as we see the cost is hight, even I considered apriory the salaries. And the energy cost do not has only salaries, there are other expenses to be added. Make your estimate and come with more accurate comments. Are PV worth for investment, yes certainly the PV are great, but drop the cost and not only on presentations, but on real life.

[@NaokiWatanabe]

Somewhat ironically, the boom in rooftop solar in Australia can be partially attributed to a right-leaning government who, for decades, pushed pro-coal/gas and anti-renewable policies. These regressive policies designed to benefit the fossil fuel industry meant Australia had some of the highest electricity prices in the world. The side effect of high grid electricity prices is the payback for your residential solar system drops increasing its attractiveness. Had the Coalition government been more willing to invest in renewables (and/or reduce unnecessary subsidies for the fossil fuel industry) utility scale solar/wind may have played a bigger role and lessened the need for individual consumers to take matters into their own hands. This was not the case and so today large scale solar (big utility projects) produce very roughly only a third of the energy that residential solar produces. There's so much residential solar in fact that in some states, at some times of the day, over 100% of the state's electricity needs can be generated entirely from home solar systems.

[@nutbagus]

Hmm POTUS Carter tried & was right Solar Up on the ROOF.

[@adrianthoroughgood1191]

Then the next president removed it out of spite! Perfect metaphor.

[@sailingsandy7971]

I wish the Liberal party in Australia would spend some time educating themselves on this topic. The whole Nuclear debate is like they are stuck in a time warp back in the 60s. Technology has moved on, they havent

[@DrakeN-ow1im]

The Australian Governments are highly fossil fuelled by donations from those industries, and return the favours by maintining subsidies, enacting favourable legislation and regulations, and muddying the waters of public opinion.

[@petewright4640]

Solar maybe prove to be the dominant source of renewable energy globally but there is a strong argument for diversity of sources to reduce the need for backup and non pv sources at high latitudes.

[@kevinc-727]

Workplace charging of cars is a great way to use excess solar during day while people work, and trickle charging all day is much kinder to battery longevity than fast charging at charging stations. The solar panels could even cover parking lots to shade cars from the hot sun in the summer.

[@marcelbricman]

also worth mentioning that some countries convert their hydro use to a pure ‚battery use case‘ where the use solar overheads during daytime to drive power at night. of course not every country is able to do that but it is a very efficient form of offsetting base loads that is available right now and would still have great potential for extension.

[@at3941]

5x the entire electric grid of the UK in one year- wow

[@JaneJenkins-q2y]

Imagine a world were we only use clean energy, with no dependency on fossil fuels.

[@simonpannett8810]

Its coming and fingers crossed fast enough to make a difference!

[@geoffreyofmonmouth9796]

The usual suspects are pushing back on reducing plastic usage - that's the next front.

[@chrisray9653]

Impossible. Renewables are stretching the remaining supply.

[@op4000exe]

Honestly not that hard to imagine, especially considering that fossil fuels are just inefficiently stored solar power. Ancient solar power, but solar power nonetheless.

[@mattmccallum2007]

That would be so stupid.

[@DeniSaputta]

2:55 As a person in Southeast Asia who doesn't have winter. We don't need to install 2-3x as many solar panels for winter like the Netherlands

[@fiddlesticks9887]

Incentives for domestic solar could go a long way towards solving the space issue. Roof space is already there just waiting to be usetd!

[@THG_101]

Yep. The cost of installing solar + battery on my victorian terrace is still around £10k, with a repayment horizon of around 10 years (I think). If that comes down to around £5k I think we'd see a very rapid uptake.

[@beansnrice321]

I think that every house should have a car battery built into it for power filtering and storage.

[@renagolv]

this brings hope. thank u for a good program

[@fenrirgg]

In my country the government took a long step backwards 6 years ago and tried to generate all energy from the government owned company again, mainly burning gas (imported from USA) and petroleum coke, and also the great new energy they proposed: "coal" (mostly imported because my country doesn't have enough coal to expand its opertion)... but still the general public didn't stop installing solar panels, because they have economical sense, even if the government puts hinderings to buy and use them, they still make sense. It's a reality.

[@donnamarie3617]

Regarding recycling pv panels, what about leaving them in place, give em a clean then stick these new thin film ones straight on top. Wiring is still in place, nice flat base, what's the problem?

[@DrakeN-ow1im]

Rational thinking once again raises its head to upset the delicate ids of obfuscators, denialists and reactionaries.

[@alan2102X]

@@DrakeN-ow1im LOL

[@behr121002]

Dave, your usual excellence in coverage on this crucial societal/scientific field so important to the health and life of the planet.

[@tomellis4750]

The new housing estates near me, in NE Scotland, are built without reference to the sun.

[@petewright4640]

Everywhere in the UK. It's stupid. We've known about the climate crisis for 40 years 😢

[@pixelfrenzy]

@tomellis4750 Is that because traditionally they're built with reference to the prevailing wind? (From the SW where I live in Moray.) As I arrive into Aberdeen on the train I've seen plenty of new build with PV going in during construction, are they also badly orientated? Maybe this should be part of the planning approval?

[@tomellis4750]

@@pixelfrenzy Don't think so, they just seem to be shovelled in higgedly-piggedly, as closely as possible. I'm in Moray too, the new schemes in Elgin and Forres are like that. There's a new scheme SE of Inverness has a lot of solar. Old fisher cottages seem to have been built with reference to the wind.

[@pixelfrenzy]

@@tomellis4750 I'm in a Springfield new-build in Forres and my roof is oriented E-W, but most of the scheme is N-S. I'm renting so no chance to add PV anyway.

[@green-user8348]

I was driving through southern New Mexico and I was shocked how few solar panels I saw. My goodness, sun all day long almost for the entire year yet it was a solar panel desert. I see this as a failure of the US government.

[@cabiroy]

Of all of the solar and wind capacity that has been installed over the years, how much was curtailed? How much was decommissioned?

[@samuxan]

I can't find data on this. There's stories of PV plants from the 70s and 80s being decommissioned on the 90s but no data about how many, if any, have shut down in the last 20 years or so. I guess it's just because they keep producing and many have been improved or renewed but not dismantle

[@stevejones2310]

Lots. But that will slowly change with the advent of EVs and smart charging/discharging

[@petewright4640]

​@@stevejones2310And with an improving grid and the development of demand side management, such as ev charging when power is in surplus, and the development of loads that exploit surplus power such as green H2.....

[@skierpage]

Solar and wind farms are repowered all the time when It's cost-effective to install more efficient panels and turbines. And before you start clutching your pearls over the scrapped materials, understand they are many orders of magnitude less waste than the millions of tons of fossil fuel burning that they displaced in even only 10 years of operation. Go watch 4:00 again.

[@incognitotorpedo42]

@@stevejones2310 Is there any data on that? "lots" sounds kind of made up.

[@te8547e]

Glad to hear the good news! Have a nice day everyone!

[@eriktempelman2097]

Thanks for sharing this exciting news.

[@dprcontracting6299]

Thanks Dave, good to have some heartening news when there is such startling and worrying news coming from that big powerful country to your west.

[@petterbirgersson4489]

Recently liberated Syria should solve their power issues with pv:s and gridscale batteries.

[@pixelfrenzy]

Most of the Middle East could do this, but it would surely require some kind of "PV Marshall Plan" to provide the capital. Not that this should prevent it happening, though...

[@joelpettlon9650]

You mean recently conquered Syria. You should look into what actually happened a lot more.

[@fishyerik]

Another great episode! About the "embedded emissions", first, they're not limited to renewables, fossil fuel infrastructure and machinery also have "embedded emissions", but somehow, the renewable phobics seems to think/argue only renewables has them. More importantly, it's a transition, the transition phase doesn't have to be perfect in order for the transition to be a much better option than continuing burning stuff as if there was no tomorrow. The emissions and other issues from renewables are already kind of insignificant compared to fossil fuels, which isn't limited to the toxic and climate destroying exhausts, there are plenty of issues with the sourcing, refining and transporting of fossil fuels, and then there's the issue of how the value of fossil fuels tends to empower war mongering megalomaniacs with god complexes. When it comes to space for solar PV, most domestic buildings has space for solar panels to generate much more power then the occupants needs, if the power is utilized somewhat efficiently. Solar panels the area of a parking space for one car can produce enough power for a normal commute, and since commuting means you need two parking spaces, one at home, and one at work, just the required parking space for one commuting car is enough to power commuting for two EVs, assuming those spaces are outdoors, and not shadowed. While that's not always the case, when it is, it's usually possible to make the solar panels cover a much larger area than the strict parking space alone. While there is a significant mismatch between sunshine and when we want power, there are a lot of ways to deal with that, that can be used in combination. Any reasoning about that issue that assumes that one single option has to be able to solve that issue by itself, and/or that technology development will revert back to where it was 5 years ago or more, and then stay there is fundamentally flawed.

[@Burtis89]

Id absolutely love solar but just cant afford it 😢

[@commieTerminator]

No govt schemes for rooftop solar?

[@petewright4640]

It's cheap. Second hand panels for £20/200W. X EV battery from a scrap yard. Second hand inverter from e bay etc.

[@Sekir80]

@@petewright4640 I can even buy new panels ~80$/410W. But you are right, half the price. If one has limited space one'd need to go with new panels.

[@Burtis89]

@@commieTerminator think maybe 0% Vat but it's still like £8,000 to £10,000

[@Burtis89]

@@petewright4640 All good if you know someone who can fit it I suppose

[@jimsandercock1629]

At 5:27 he says "sawing" the ingots. But the closed captioning says "sewing". Just a little heads-up, because there is no sewing involved when manufacturing solar cells. Love the channel. Cheers!

[@gabrieleboracchi7411]

All very interesting, but I have to 2 questions in my mind: 1) What is stopping us from installing Solar PVs just on the massive areas (rooftops of cities) that we have been so thoughtlessly cementifying in the last century? Should it not be a win-win? ... i mean, is it just bureaucracy and the private-property system? 2) How can we pass from a baseload system to a intermittent system without consequences? it seems a bit hard to achieve to me, and I still can't help myself from thinking that nuclear power is still a good ally on that.

[@theoldbuzzard5239]

There are some forward looking towns in the UK that are retro fitting publicly owned buildings with solar panels and batteries. Energise Barnsley is one company. Brighton is another. They have had problems in Brighton. The seagulls don’t like the panels and were attacking them! Possibly the mirror surface made the bird think its reflection was a competitor.

[@gabrieleboracchi7411]

@theoldbuzzard5239 wow, I had no idea seagulls could do that...😂. Anyways, that looks good initiative. Of course different areas require different solutions, I live in Italy and we have plenty of sun, there is such a big public rooftop area unused... it's wasted potential you know and it doesn't ruin the style or the history of cities in ant way to me!

[@jefelipe_]

The domination is so huge that the values for top 5 markets are outdated: installed capacity in Brazil is reaching almost 40 GW at the end of 2024, 3x as much.

[@alexzimmi4827]

I hate to say it but China basically saves our asses (although the basis for this was a lot of research especially in europe, almost as if the world would be a better place for all if we just work together...)

[@danburnes722]

China is still, by far, the largest producer of GHG emissions.

[@englishcitystone1663]

​@danburnes722 Not per capita though

[@danburnes722]

@@englishcitystone1663 The worse part is their trends continue up, while the West collectively has gone down. The constant apologizing for China is why GHGs will continue to go up. In America, we have MAGA and Trump that want to destroy the planet. I appreciate Dave’s positive take here, but I am not optimistic.

[@richdobbs6595]

In reality, China pollutes their own country and turns their own population in to slave labor to build up impressive infrastructure and buildings and is now pivoting to a massive military buildup. No other country smelts aluminium using coal fired electricity. Hey, but you've got an impressive number of millionaires in a communist country that has an incredibly high GINI coefficient. Yeah! Winning!

[@alexzimmi4827]

@@danburnes722 This might be true. However, contrary to the word 'still' you used to imply that they already did so for a long time, historically, the (western) global north has emitted the lions share of CO2. You can debate me on this and provide numbers proving me wrong but in my view, China used their time much better to develop alternatives to fossil fuels while still having to develop it's own economy.

[@erwh1]

2:40 Considering the size of The Netherlands (tiny) and the density of the population (very dense) I’m really amazed that it can be even near a top spot. Like you say, it shows the enormous potential of PV.

[@petewright4640]

It's sawing silicone ingots, not "sewing" when the guy with the thick accent was talking about pv manufacturing.

[@pixelfrenzy]

If we're going to be picky it's "silicon" (for chips) not "silicone" (for breast implants).

[@incognitotorpedo42]

@@pixelfrenzy This is a pet peeve of mine...

[@greyhorse1211]

@@incognitotorpedo42it’s just his French accent ffs. How good is your French?

[@mrawesome4751]

I have 10kw on my roof for the last 8 years. I didn't pay an electric bill for the first 3 of that. Australia is the best for rooftop solar.

[@AndDiracisHisProphet]

the last "statistic" is really bad. what is meant by this? energy the solar cells produce in a year? in their life time?...

[@peterjohn5834]

Dave this is just a superb report. Thank you for your efforts in educating.

[@peterjol]

I don't know what is happening with you tube lately, loads of vids seem to start a few seconds into the video. I am not keen on long intro's but I am getting no intro time at all

[@benjiboy69420]

KZbin being super glitchy for me too, comments take a long time to post and likes will disapeer than reappear. Playlist and video queues disappearing then reappearing. I'm not paranoid insofar as thinking it's anything censorious or whatnot, I just think the platform itself is getting sluggish and janky and it's really starting to show.

[@macmcleod1188]

​@@benjiboy69420The Simpsons you're describing sound more like the platform is overloaded. This is a different issue than the rampant censorship we have seen this year.

[@incognitotorpedo42]

@@benjiboy69420 It's incompetent programmers, or they are spread too thin.

[@steve_787]

13:23 - I had a similar back and forth with someone on Facebook on a post that said if all fossil fuels were replaced by renewables shipping would halve globally. Most comments were that they would just be replaced by shipping solar panels & wind turbines. Had to point out that one ships a fuel, the other ships "generators" so after some time shipping will slow right down. I did some basic calcs on the MWh's a coal ship carries vs the MW's worth of solar panel and I came to around 7 days the solar, from said shipment, would take to generate the same MWh's as the coal, but then the solar carries on whereas the coal power has run out and needs more fuel.

[@tomconrad7091]

The only people talking about nuclear power are government or monopolies who are interested in wasting taxpayer money. Least cost is solar and batteries. Don’t they economic principles to nuclear engineers and bureaucrats?

[@SweBeach2023]

Solar + batteries use far more resources and create far more pollution than nuclear.

[@Doug-tc2px]

Sure

[@thamesmud]

The size of batteries needed for grid scale backup are totally unachievable.

[@Anyreck]

So good to hear positive news on the PV development & implementation front👏

[@seanlander9321]

In Australia we pay much more for electricity due to the costs of converting the grid to cope with the excess energy produced by solar panels. The transition to solar isn’t easy, or cheap, and the opportunists who have positioned themselves to take advantage of conventional base load generation when the system is stressed make a fortune by charging one. However, there’s a developing awareness that cheap EVs offer an excellent solution to using the excess solar power if they are charged during the day.

[@adrianthoroughgood1191]

In places like Australia the government should require all workplace car parks to be fitted with chargers so cars can be plugged in during solar production time.

[@theharper1]

@@adrianthoroughgood1191 better still, put solar roofs over the car parks as well - the cars get shade and electricity at the same time.

[@ronaldlindeman6136]

@@theharper1 The charging can be done in DC.

[@theharper1]

@@ronaldlindeman6136 that would be more efficient, but not necessarily practical depending on how the charging service is provided. From an employer's perspective it would be easier to outsource, so a standard grid connected charge point would probably be more likely, offset by the power from the solar roof (if installed).

[@adrianthoroughgood1191]

@@theharper1 absolutely! France has passed a law requiring solar panels over car parks.

[@edwardbyard6540]

If I had the money, I'd start a solar panel recycling business. That's going to be a HUGE business in the coming years.

[@tims9434]

This is the content i come here for, not all the propaganda stuff

[@euginius]

Woah, the red on that sweater is hitting hard on my display! Great videos as always, though!

[@macmcleod1188]

One gigaton is nice. Going back to "peak tree" would be about 2 gigatons. However we were supposed to be at 29 gigatons now and we have instead reached 41 gigatons. Even without runaway methane sublimation, that is enough CO2 to increase the temperature by 1° C every 24 years.. Play 2° C is baked in as of 2026. We pass plus 3° C when we don't fix this problem by 2050. It's already too late. It's been too late since about 2012. I suppose we could spend about 15 trillion dollars on carbon capture. But we all know that's not going to happen. Trying to spend that much money on it might make it much more expensive than a currently is. Or maybe we'd get some economies of scale than it would only cost 12 trillion dollars. I'm betting the corruption would be something we have never seen before

[@patricegalacteros1529]

Slowly and calmly you do an excellent job. Keep on doing it please.