Repurposing reservoirs

[boneil]

There's several other countries doing this already. China and Europe have some impressive floating solar arrays. India has been covering their canals with solar. Solar is the future, wether you believe it or not.

A question for the BBC brain trust:

If solar panels on a resevoir would kill all organisms in the resevoir by blocking the sun light, then how are farmers growing crops under solar panels?

[bassfisher444]

There's several other countries doing this already. China and Europe have some impressive floating solar arrays. India has been covering their canals with solar. Solar is the future, wether you believe it or not.

A question for the BBC brain trust:

If solar panels on a resevoir would kill all organisms in the resevoir by blocking the sun light, then how are farmers growing crops under solar panels?

Lol, you think it's a good idea, why are none of us surprized? To answer your question we have a bunch of farms here in OH with solar panels, and I know dozens of farmers, never seen one growing crops under their solar panels.

[boneil]

Lol, you think it's a good idea, why are none of us surprized? To answer your question we have a bunch of farms here in OH with solar panels, and I know dozens of farmers, never seen one growing crops under their solar panels.

I guess since you've never seen one then it must not exist. OK

[Mcjenson]

There's several other countries doing this already. China and Europe have some impressive floating solar arrays. India has been covering their canals with solar. Solar is the future, wether you believe it or not.

A question for the BBC brain trust:

If solar panels on a resevoir would kill all organisms in the resevoir by blocking the sun light, then how are farmers growing crops under solar panels?

At the end of the day, you always need power on demand, not just when the sun is shining or wind is blowing. While these “renewables” can supplement the grid, they almost never are a cost effective complete solution.

[boneil]

At the end of the day, you always need power on demand, not just when the sun is shining or wind is blowing. While these “renewables” can supplement the grid, they almost never are a cost effective complete solution.

I take it you never heard of grid storage. It's understandable. Most people don't follow the projects that are going on. There's alot of grid storage projects happening at the same time as we expand solar and wind generation.

[Mcjenson]

I take it you never heard of grid storage. It's understandable. Most people don't follow the projects that are going on. There's alot of grid storage projects happening at the same time as we expand solar and wind generation.

I work for a major utility lol. Like I said, all of these pie in the sky ideas seem great on paper, and they will take some pictures of "grid storage" facilities and make sure they hit the paper, but the overall expenses of these projects make them more of a political statement rather than an actual major factor in power production. I even know of some "solar" we have that isn't even hooked to anything, its purely to look "green". If we want real improvements we need better / increased transmission abilities, more reservoir storage, and more nuclear facilities. Instead we tend to throw up wind generation and solar sites that are more of a political statement than an actual cost effective solution for the customers.

[boneil]

I work for a major utility lol. Like I said, all of these pie in the sky ideas seem great on paper, and they will take some pictures of "grid storage" facilities and make sure they hit the paper, but the overall expenses of these projects make them more of a political statement rather than an actual major factor in power production. I even know of some "solar" we have that isn't even hooked to anything, its purely to look "green". If we want real improvements we need better / increased transmission abilities, more reservoir storage, and more nuclear facilities. Instead we tend to throw up wind generation and solar sites that are more of a political statement than an actual cost effective solution for the customers.

There sure is alot of grid storage being built for just being pie in the sky ideas. But, you know the old saying, "one man's pie in the sky idea is another man's balanced grid with cheap energy".

[Mcjenson]

There sure is alot of grid storage being built for just being pie in the sky ideas. But, you know the old saying, "one man's pie in the sky idea is another man's balanced grid with cheap energy".

These grid storage facilities are basically a non factor right now (with the exception of being used as a system stabilizer, rather than primary energy source). I can understand them making sense for individual homes (even though return on initial investment is extremely slow), or even small neighborhoods. But when you scale them up to high voltages, account for transmission loss and conversion losses, the numbers just don't make sense.

[188Musky]

These grid storage facilities are basically a non factor right now (with the exception of being used as a system stabilizer, rather than primary energy source). I can understand them making sense for individual homes (even though return on initial investment is extremely slow), or even small neighborhoods. But when you scale them up to high voltages, account for transmission loss and conversion losses, the numbers just don't make sense.

We’re talking about covering reservoirs with solar panels and using batteries to power the US power grid. Making sense is not a consideration.

[Bueller]

These grid storage facilities are basically a non factor right now (with the exception of being used as a system stabilizer, rather than primary energy source). I can understand them making sense for individual homes (even though return on initial investment is extremely slow), or even small neighborhoods. But when you scale them up to high voltages, account for transmission loss and conversion losses, the numbers just don't make sense.

If you really do work for a utility, you need to do a little more studying and research as to what’s going on in the industry, and particularly in the west where you live. If you do, you’ll find that utility scale grid storage projects are being built like crazy and the price is dropping like a rock. And, as you kinda sorta admitted, residential battery storage is a fast growing market and forecasts have it being on par or cheaper than solar in five years or so.

Also, I don’t believe for a second that your employer built a utility scale solar project just to look green and never bothered to hook it up. There are far, far too many watchdogs at every utility, including yours, and they would never allow that to happen or be swept under the rug. It might not yet be online and it may never be online, but there’s a reason and it’s not because they just don’t feel like it. To suggest otherwise is disingenuous.

[Ranchhand02]

There's several other countries doing this already. China and Europe have some impressive floating solar arrays. India has been covering their canals with solar. Solar is the future, wether you believe it or not.

A question for the BBC brain trust:

If solar panels on a resevoir would kill all organisms in the resevoir by blocking the sun light, then how are farmers growing crops under solar panels?

I have not seen farms under solar panels, but I am not denying that it does exist. How do they farm around the panels? I don't see how there could be enough room to get equipment in and around the panels. I would assume it would be smaller scale agriculture that grow specialty crops.

[boneil]

I have not seen farms under solar panels, but I am not denying that it does exist. How do they farm around the panels? I don't see how there could be enough room to get equipment in and around the panels. I would assume it would be smaller scale agriculture that grow specialty crops.

https://www.agritecture.com/blog/202...ltaic-land-use

[Ranchhand02]

https://www.agritecture.com/blog/202...ltaic-land-use

Thanks for the article. That is what I assumed is that it would be small scale ag with a specialty crop. The example in the article was a 24 acre crop. Its like most things in that it will not work everywhere, but it will work in certain situations.

[MI bassassassin]

There's several other countries doing this already. China and Europe have some impressive floating solar arrays. India has been covering their canals with solar. Solar is the future, wether you believe it or not.

Yes because we should model ourselves after those bastions of environmental quality nations , okie dokie.

[boneil]

Yes because we should model ourselves after those bastions of environmental quality nations , okie dokie.

Isn't this the place that loves "clean coal" and talks about all the coal plants China and India are building?

[MI bassassassin]

Isn't this the place that loves "clean coal" and talks about all the coal plants China and India are building?

who am I to tell you what you want to believe .