Solar farms helping ease strain on U.S. power grids

The increase in available solar energy across the U.S. has a much-needed boost for power grids currently strained by this summer's record-breaking heat. Carter Evans reports.
#solar #solarenergy #news
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[@guybeingaguy]

The pumping water uphill for later use generating power was pretty good 👍

[@mrmustangman]

i thought so too.....

[@franklinblunt69]

Absurdly wasteful, but they promoted as if efficient & effective, so much dishonesty & corruption with ClimateCon.

[@A-Pa-s-Plainjane]

That idea is very old. In Va they had that almost 50 years ago.

[@guybeingaguy]

@@A-Pa-s-Plainjane I’ve been known to miss the obvious 🥺🫤

[@jackreacher8858]

@@A-Pa-s-Plainjane This is the kind of infor govt hide from you . Wonder WHY !

[@CARL557511]

I live in West Virginia and recently declared I own the Renewable Energy Rights on my rural property and did so with an affidavit that I recorded at my county courthouse. That's one way of securing a future for my family in the long run.

[@zrmahoney]

"Energy is most efficient when it's produced where it's consumed"

[@GoldenGearGrinder]

Yeah, that quote is kinds pointless considering electricity travels through wires at the speed of light. Which means, if you're part of an interconnection, you could live in Arizona, but your electricity comes from Washington. Or vice versa.

[@palmshoot]

@@GoldenGearGrinder This is wrong for two reasons. First, electricity travels at a fraction of the speed of light, even in a perfect vacuum. Second, geothermal energy can produce both electricity and heat. Heat and even electricity dissipate with increasing distance.

[@GoldenGearGrinder]

@@palmshoot Electricity travels at 270,000 km/s or 90 percent the speed of light. And only between 8 and 15 percemt of power is lost over long distance transmission. That's AC transmission. DC transmission is often 3 percent or less over 1000km.

[@palmshoot]

@@GoldenGearGrinder As a fraction, 90 percent equates to nine tenths. Even then, electricity traveling through wires are slowed further by resistance. Then, there's the matter of faulty wiring. These losses are largely why fiber optics or line-of-sight transmission are used for high-speed data transfer.

[@GoldenGearGrinder]

@@palmshoot Neither you nor your electronics are gonna notice a diffrence between 100 percent thr speed of light, and 90 percent. And the reason why we use fiber to transmit data is beacuse copper has a limited bandwidth. Fiber does not. But I do want to point out, fiber has losses too. That's why undersea fiber optic cables have boosters installed in strategic places. So to eliminate as much signal degradation. And line of sight transmission is more resistant than simple wireing. It's why wireless power transmission isn't widely used.

[@ipod9771]

Just curious on how one would go about getting a job on a solar farm? And what are some of the job opportunities that Solar offers?

[@JohnnyPeacenic]

Thats a under estimate. You didn't figure in all the homes that have their own solar

[@felixthecat2786]

It is 1% in Texas....

[@guybeingaguy]

I’m an retired engineer. If you said that during a meeting, your desk would be empty by COB. We are light years ahead of you in education and experience and to ask that BASIC question shows you don’t know what “baseline” or a sesium standard is. It’s taught in high school so if you made it through 4 years of college majoring in engineering and ask that?????? LAUGHTER FOR SURE!

[@caelinbaird6493]

Yes, but can they save the grid from EMP attacks?

[@thalance6902]

they should put roofs over parking lots and put solar panels on those roofs,like in sweden,its a win win situation

[@palmshoot]

I don't know why they don't just put 'em on abadoned buildings. I would think the transmission lines are already set up.

[@jaym9846]

Patented idea. You can't use it without being sued.

[@user-eh2hj8bx6i]

They do in some parking lots like grocery stores in the US Southwest.

[@polyteky]

@@jaym9846 what's the patent name or no.

[@liamd7383]

Good idea having them track the sun throughout the day.

[@jaym9846]

Once again humans have out smarted Mother Nature.

[@fluxfaze]

Such a crazy thing, this harvesting energy constantly radiating from the most powerful object in the solar system. Totally nuts.

[@MH-eu1dr]

Technically space time would be the most powerful thing but its not an object. So back to square one I guess.

[@fluxfaze]

@@MH-eu1dr Antimatter.

[@palmshoot]

@@fluxfaze Anti-matter cannot be more powerful than matter. That would be like saying the absolute value of negative one is greater than one.

[@epicjag3365]

Try living surrounded by a solar farm like I am and you won't be a fan of it. It's a nightmare.

[@jb76489]

Citation needed

[@epicjag3365]

@@jb76489 what does that mean?

[@jb76489]

@@epicjag3365 its a round about way of saying youre full of it

[@codenamezero7357]

Sun is powerful let's hope humans can stay on surface to enjoy it

[@palmshoot]

Can anyone in the industry explain why they use solar panels far more frequently than solar-thermal setups? I think I recall reading the the latter has a higher efficiency.

[@guybeingaguy]

Smart guy taking a guess. You add the word thermal your adding complexity, maintenance to the equation and the numbers no longer work. Difficult to Google an answer so hopefully someone will……

[@jamesappling1212]

Cost.

[@palmshoot]

@@guybeingaguy Smart guys don't mistake "your" for "you're." If you're mentioning Google, it's clear that you're not even from the industry, something I specifically requested. In this case, heat is a feature not a bug. Contrary to popular belief, most of the sun's radiation is infrared, which is also why infrared solar panels, ones that can work day and night, are being investigsted.

[@palmshoot]

@@jamesappling1212 Care to elaborate? And how long have you been in the industry?

[@jamesappling1212]

@@palmshoot Not IN the industry. But follow it fairly closely. Thermal has been tried, but, that big three letter word again. Wasn't successful. I don't know if it was a tracking system failure or efficiency problems with the Solar arrays. But, the power output was much less than expected. The cost for the relatively simple mounting system most commercial Solar Systems use is much less than the aiming system, tracking system, and light concentration system requirements for a "hot" system. You want more. Dig it up Yourself. It's out there.

[@Dan.50]

No they don't.

[@fynkozari9271]

America the greatest country, barely 30% clean energy.

[@unsupportiveperson7724]

The demand for energy too high, the red tape to build new energy too much, the demand for energy ocelates too much

[@robertbolton9450]

Praise be to god.

[@bargdaffy1535]

Great only 50 years late and $20 Trillion short! Enjoy the End my Friends

[@tanialimaa1860]

💗💗💖

[@DeathsGarden-oz9gg]

And if you spacesed them out 5% more and raise them to 15 feet you can have native plant life under them and that will help cool them increasing there output and cleaning the air for free. But if you just do what they just did guess what it's now a big heat dome do to no vegetation since they clear the land bare in order to put these up the way its normally done.

[@GoldenGearGrinder]

I'm 98 percent certain most plants cannot grow in that climate location. Especially since a lot of solar farms are situated in deserts.

[@A-Pa-s-Plainjane]

The way we do it now leaves a lot to be desired. They are putting one up the street from me. 2245 acres (almost 4 sq. Miles) with approx. 300mw capacity. 220,000 panels. I could have the capacity wrong. It's 3 separate tracks of farmland. They have 30 year leases. There's an overhead power line there already which makes the site ideal for them. A French company owns it; none of the power is for the locals. Not sure if the taxes are appropriate. After it's built it needs only 4 people to maintain it, or so they say. Not sure if they have money allocated for decommissioning the site back to farmland.. But it is very big and ugly.

[@gehrigornelas6317]

Awesome. Great to see. Stil, should have mentioned the climate crisis.

[@zanjero]

What the clip doesn't mention is that good farmland is lost and in the desert habitat is destroyed creating a new dust bowl effect for the environment. Also, turns out solar isn't too stellar at night causing California utilities to warn about rolling backouts if we don't sweat during peak hours.

[@tommersch4296]

And that time when we run out of fossil fuels.....

[@fr2ncm9]

That's why energy farms have storage batteries.

[@palmshoot]

Videos can be found of cows grazing alongside solar panels. Of course, here, we're talking about dessers, where life is limited.

[@jamesappling1212]

Solar already saves the current Grids. But everyone is told how terrible Wind and Solar are. Who is getting Paid for the lies.???

[@epicjag3365]

Solar IS terrible. I live surrounded by a solar farm so I know. It buzzes constantly, all day every day. It interrupts our phone, internet and TV signals. All the forest animals on our property have disappeared. I don't know if the buzzing is running them away or if something about it is killing them. It's doing something to the land because all the trees they keep trying to plant around the fence keep dying. I actually fear for our safety living in the middle of this thing.

[@plan6161]

what about hunter lol ok lets not make it news

[@DarkBrandonForever]

Who cares about the president's son... What about electricity and cooling our homes.🙄

[@fr2ncm9]

@@DarkBrandonForever I don't care if I get heat stroke so long as Hunter Biden gets dragged through the mud. Says every southern MAGA fan.

[@almostthere100]

Tesla Megapacks are the future!

[@jaym9846]

How much does the system cost?