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Climate Change

Lilbaz said:
Do you know who came up with the idea of measuring your carbon footprint? BP. The idea being to shift the focus onto the consumer rather than on the producer.
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That might be true however there was a saying I heard once along the lines of "if everyone that owned a tele demanded world peace we would have it by now" the point being its people that make up the power of change if we really really want it but the facts are people talk rather than people do

Its not big business fault all the time if people make crap choices like using their car to take a 5 mins journey to the shops etc, you can only control what you can control but if everyone did that better than piece by piece the numbers would become substantial enough for it to make a difference.
 
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Grays_1890 said:
That might be true however there was a saying I heard once along the lines of "if everyone that owned a tele demanded world peace we would have it by now" the point being its people that make up the power of change if we really really want it but the facts are people talk rather than people do

Its not big business fault all the time if people make crap choices like using their car to take a 5 mins journey to the shops etc, you can only control what you can control but if everyone did that better than piece by piece the numbers would become substantial enough for it to make a difference.
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It's down to government aswell. Stop designing new housing estates around the car. Provide good public transport etc... there is a very good reason that europeans carbon footprints (those living in cities) are 1/6 that of an american.

Stopping subsidising fossil fuels and give that money to green energy would be a great start.
 
ricky2tricky4city said:
It's the rate of the species decline. (An average of, across species) , not the amount of animals on earth, to be clear

Still alarming and a warning sign.
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I'm not sure you have that right. It is an average population decline within those species, not the rate of decline, or at least I haven't seen it reported anywhere. Am I misunderstanding you?
 
Can someone explain why solar farms are not a good idea? I know nothing about them and assumed they were the future when people were talking them up, However I heard someone say the other day that they do more harm than good. Anyone an expert on here?
 
dingdongo said:
Can someone explain why solar farms are not a good idea? I know nothing about them and assumed they were the future when people were talking them up, However I heard someone say the other day that they do more harm than good. Anyone an expert on here?
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Did they mean putting solar farms on agricultural land was a bad idea or all solar farms? If they mean the latter they are wrong. I know a bit about solar panels if you have any questions (that are not too complicated).
 
I think it was something about Solar farms having a limited life span and afterwards the ground there are on are not able to be reused for farming again afterwards or something along those lines.. Is there any truth to that?
 
dingdongo said:
I think it was something about Solar farms having a limited life span and afterwards the ground there are on are not able to be reused for farming again afterwards or something along those lines.. Is there any truth to that?
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Most panels come with a 10 or 15-year guarantee, and considering how fast the price is dropping then flipping in new ones in 10 years or so is not a big deal. They will have paid for themselves many times over by then. The old ones will still work too just less efficiently. There is no financial downside to PV.

The land under panels is fine for grazing animals but not for growing crops is the general thinking on it. The panels shade the ground underneath but don't damage it in any other way. Here in Ireland, a switch of 0.2% of agricultural land to pv panels farms would power the whole Island. And obviously there is wind power and other sources too. It is a relatively small area being talked about.

If I was to guess I would say these arguments you've heard may have originated in the fossil fuel PR departments. This industry spends billions on propaganda designed to prolong its existence.
 
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dingdongo said:
I think it was something about Solar farms having a limited life span and afterwards the ground there are on are not able to be reused for farming again afterwards or something along those lines.. Is there any truth to that?
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When solar farms have been done in desert regions you will often see plant life grow around them as the cool the area slightly and protect from wind.

Some farmers grow crops between panels.

solar-veg.jpeg
 
Rorschach said:
dropping then flipping in new ones in 10 years or so is not a big deal. They will have paid for themselves 1000 times over by then. The old ones will still work too just less efficiently.
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That would entirely depend on where in the world they are placed. I got a quote from several solar panel providers to install solar panels on the roof of my house facing south, about 60sqm. Note that I live in Northern Norway, so they'd be covered in snow 3-4 months a year, but from late april it's daylight almost 24 hours until september. All that and avg. number of sunny days etc. was calculated.
Even with doubling last few years avg. price of electricity, it would take 25 years for them to become profitable, and that was only the price of the panels, excluding installation cost. Don't think their gradually declining efficiency was calculated in to it, so in reality it would probably take 30+ years.

So, solar panels? Not up here. I should get water turbines in the rain gutter. That would pay for itself within minutes!
 
Kandi1977 said:
That would entirely depend on where in the world they are placed. I got a quote from several solar panel providers to install solar panels on the roof of my house facing south, about 60sqm. Note that I live in Northern Norway, so they'd be covered in snow 3-4 months a year, but from late april it's daylight almost 24 hours until september. All that and avg. number of sunny days etc. was calculated.
Even with doubling last few years avg. price of electricity, it would take 25 years for them to become profitable, and that was only the price of the panels, excluding installation cost. Don't think their gradually declining efficiency was calculated in to it, so in reality it would probably take 30+ years.

So, solar panels? Not up here. I should get water turbines in the rain gutter. That would pay for itself within minutes!
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Covering 60 sqm is a lot of panels. I have no clue about Norway but at these latitudes about a dozen 400 watt panels (if you can fit them) would nearly cover all of a typical house's electrical needs. I bought six 400-watt panels there last year, which were close to the best you could buy at the time. Now there are panels over 600W. Same roof real estate but 50% more energy. We are only at the start of the PV learning curve so maybe one day PV will be an option for you.
 
Rorschach said:
Covering 60 sqm is a lot of panels. I have no clue about Norway but at these latitudes about a dozen 400 watt panels (if you can fit them) would nearly cover all of a typical house's electrical needs. I bought six 400-watt panels there last year, which were close to the best you could buy at the time. Now there are panels over 600W. Same roof real estate but 50% more energy. We are only at the start of the PV learning curve so maybe one day PV will be an option for you.
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Can't remember how many panels it was, but it was 400W panels. Think it was around 14-16 panels, does that seem right? Calculations were that they would produce around 6000-7000kWh a year, and we use 22000-24000. So roughly 25%. BUT, they'd make the majority of that in the summer, when we don't need it here, as its warm and don't need heating, but usually not warm enough that we need air conditioning, and we don't need much light either. Selling the surplus in the summer makes next to nothing, as prices here in the summer is about 0.01Gbp per kWh. At present the price is 0.015 here.
But of course, further south in sunnier climate and higher prices for electricity, it becomes a totally different matter.
 
Kandi1977 said:
Can't remember how many panels it was, but it was 400W panels. Think it was around 14-16 panels, does that seem right? Calculations were that they would produce around 6000-7000kWh a year, and we use 22000-24000. So roughly 25%. BUT, they'd make the majority of that in the summer, when we don't need it here, as its warm and don't need heating, but usually not warm enough that we need air conditioning, and we don't need much light either. Selling the surplus in the summer makes next to nothing, as prices here in the summer is about 0.01Gbp per kWh. At present the price is 0.015 here.
But of course, further south in sunnier climates and higher prices for electricity, it becomes a totally different matter.
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I have a bit of wine on board but those numbers seem a little off. About 4000kwh per year of electricity is typical here. I'll have a think about it.
 
Rorschach said:
I have a bit of wine on board but those numbers seem a little off. About 4000kwh per year of electricity is typical here. I'll have a think about it.
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They're not off. We only use electricity for heating and everything else. No gas, coal, oil or anything else. Only electricity. In winter we use 3000kWh+ in a month. Here's my monthly usage the last 3 years.
Screenshot_20221106_020549.jpg
 
dingdongo said:
Can someone explain why solar farms are not a good idea? I know nothing about them and assumed they were the future when people were talking them up, However I heard someone say the other day that they do more harm than good. Anyone an expert on here?
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Oil industry PR, supported by their benefactees like Truss and co. They are behaving just like the tabacco industry did in its dying days
 
@Rorschach what about installing a power wall? So you can load up energy at night time using cheap night time tariffs and then use it during the day? Paired with solar panels you can store your electricity made during the day as well. Will all homes have a power wall in the future, allowing us to plateau the spikes in production and demand?
 
SpurMeUp said:
@Rorschach what about installing a power wall? So you can load up energy at night time using cheap night time tariffs and then use it during the day? Paired with solar panels you can store your electricity made during the day as well. Will all homes have a power wall in the future, allowing us to plateau the spikes in production and demand?
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That is certainly the way we are going. The goal would almost make your house an energy island or alternatively tap into a local microgrid. Sounds like tomorrow's world (one for our older readers) but is actually not that far away. Imagine a house with a PV system capable of supplying and storing the house's full needs including running a heat pump and charging a car. It is not that far away in these climes.

The price of a stackable 2.4kw lithium battery is about a grand (€) now. That is a bit on the pricey side still but the prices are dropping all the time. Watch out for sodium batteries in this space which are still new but will likely replace lithium at some point. They'll drive prices way down. Not to get too far into the weeds but there are ac side batteries and dc side batteries and how they fit into your setup is different. And to blow your mind we will all be driving giant batteries soon which could power your house in a pinch or even connect to the grid. That's a whole other area of discussion.
 
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