Solar power

[redneck]

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Renewable’s have their place. However, they will never be able to produce a consistent base load. Destroying the environment with wind and solar farms in the name of reducing or halting climate change is a fool’s mission

Nuclear power for the win…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-yALPEpV4w

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[oil pan 4]

I said earlier the correct amount of solar is a few percent. In 2017 California was getting 10% of their electricity from solar and that was too much. They were getting that "duck curve", where they get a huge increase in solar output as the sun comes up and have to drop fossil fuels plants off line to keep from having a grid blow out. When I say drop off line they are not off, but are at hot standby. Which means they are still burning fuel, staying ready to take over when solar drops out.

[redpoint5]

Batteries aren't a good idea unless it has an ROI by load shifting away from peak rates.

Best option if available is always net-metering so that the grid acts as the battery.

Backup power is best served by a cheap $220 generator, especially if you have natural gas and buy a tri-fuel carb for it. A decent backup should be able to go more than a couple hours, which is exactly what a generator can do.

[oil pan 4]

Grid batteries are stupid. Only people pushing grid batteries fall into 2 categories. 1 they have no reference for the scale of the problem, 2 they stand to make a lot of money off grid batteries as the power grid is a bottomless pit as far as batteries are concerned.

[freebeard]

3 Liquid metal batteries. DDG:

https://finance.yahoo.com › news › liquid-metal-batteries-storing-renewable-120000909.html
Liquid metal batteries for storing renewable energy: MIT Professor ...
17 May 2022Liquid metal batteries overcome several drawbacks of lithium-ion batteries: they are fire-proof, made from locally sourced raw materials, and without precious metals, and retain 99% of their ...

https://www.solarfeeds.com › mag › wiki › liquid-metal-battery
Liquid Metal Battery - SF Magazine
What is Liquid Metal Battery? The liquid-metal battery is composed of two liquid metal electrodes which are being separated by a molten salt electrolyte—being self-segregate into three layers based upon density and immiscibility. This battery is considered an innovative approach to solve problems regarding grid-scale electricity storage.

https://news.utexas.edu › 2020 › 07 › 06 › new-room-temperature-liquid-metal-battery-could-be-the-path-to-powering-the-future
New Room-Temperature Liquid-Metal Battery Could Be the Path to Powering ...
6 Jul 2020New Room-Temperature Liquid-Metal Battery Could Be the Path to Powering the Future AUSTIN, Texas — Researchers in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin have built a new type of battery that combines the many benefits of existing options while eliminating their key shortcomings and saving energy.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

The clear winner is hydro electric. It's the one renewable that's not so renewable, you know how much will be available at least in the immediate future and so reliable you can set your watch by it.

And even though hydro ends up being the most cost-effective "renewable", it still needs to be supplemented by other sources, such as coal and bunker oil. At least fish-farming on the lakes of some hydro powerplants can be implemented...

[freebeard]

You can set your calendar by Moon power.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by freebeard

You can set your calendar by Moon power.

IIRC the Moon calendar is still used by some religions for cerimonial purposes.

[oil pan 4]

Why these things are so difficult to make.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czochralski_method

https://youtu.be/0s5TO9h6fco

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0s5TO9...ature=youtu.be

[redpoint5]

The wafer fab I worked at did everything in that video, except lithography. I was there when they added the 300mm fab process, keeping the 200mm process.

The 200mm process had people shuffling wafers manually using carts like in the video, even moving them between separate buildings.

The 300mm process was contained in a contiguous building and OHT (overhead transport) was used. Wafers were rarely manually handled. The pullers were way more complex than the 200mm ones. The quartz crucibles could only be used twice because part of their function was to absorb oxygen, and it could only do this effectively twice. Supercooled, superconducting magnets were also used to reduce oxygen content.

The company was considering expanding the 200mm process around when I left a little over 5 years ago. To do so, they would have to expand their building floor space. I thought it crazy to expand the old process back then, but now maybe it wasn't such a crazy idea.

I kinda think we need to be printing PV, not using billion dollar fabs to make inflexible wafers. Hopefully that technology pans out.