Solar power

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

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...

Ice and snow is on the way out.
The rivers will ultimately run dry.
There won't be any 'reservoirs.'
Dams will be museum pieces.
Some in the Andes mountains have already been sold to suckers, and presently are empty, and will remain so.
There are no predictions that the trend will reverse.

[oil pan 4]

The rivers will run dry but not from BS co2 centric climate change.

[aerohead]

Trends show no other reality within reasonable probability.
The Anasazi abandoned Chaco Canyon during a megadrought ofhttps://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-righ...ican-southwest 1150.
There are presently no forcing mechanisms which can explain the warming, and all it's implications.

[freebeard]

There are no predictions that the trend will reverse.

Is there any trend ever that hasn't reversed? At the bottom of every slippery slope there is a brick wall.

There are presently no forcing mechanisms which can explain the warming, and all it's implications.

This Chaco Canyon megadrought you speak of.... Did they burn too much fossilized fuels?

[aerohead]

That's not germane to the conversation.

But, yes, they did in a way. They consumed more and more local vegetation for fuel as their population grew, denuding the landscape, and requiring longer and more distant overnight foraging missions to bring back fuel.
It's the prolonged drought that got them. And right now, New Mexico is in a 1,200-year drought.
So as AeroStealth says: with the first law of holes, when the hole's too deep, stop digging!
If you're in a drought, it's folly to behave in ways which aggravate drought.
One cannot plant apple trees with the expectation of harvesting oranges.

[oil pan 4]

I'm in new Mexico and in a 1,200 year mega drought but I can grow apple trees, which shouldn't grow here.
Ones that lasted 4 years and weren't killed by hail, frost or weren't eaten by deer, or had roots eaten by moles have rooted in and need little to no irrigation and are growing like crazy.
My neighbor is graphing orange tree branches on an apple tree and it appears to be working. Funny how you actually can get oranges from an apple tree, in new Mexico during a mega drought.

[freebeard]

Where have I heard about that before, The Simpsons?

https://www.urbandictionary.com › define.php?term=Tomacco
Urban Dictionary: Tomacco
Plant created by grafting the roots of a tobacco plant to a tomato plant resulting in a tomato plant with nicotine infused leaves and fruit. The known first example of such a plant was created by Rob Baur and publicized in October 2003. Tests have confirmed the presence of nicotine in the leaves.

[redpoint5]

Back OT, I would assume the silicon wafers are the most energy intensive step in production of PV. I saw a CZ puller with a wattmeter, and it was at something like 200,000 watts. The room had 40 pullers in it. It takes days for the ingot to grow. All the while, the crucible is held at 1420 C with inert gas in the chamber, and a supercooled superconducting jacket surrounding it.

Maybe solar is only manufactured in the 200mm process, which may or may not be more energy efficient (no superconducting magnets in that process).

The monthly electric bill for the fab was something like $6M and they got electricity for $0.04/kWh + demand charge.

[oil pan 4]

Mono solar panel producers appear to love to use 200mm.
I didn't know it took days to grow a 300mm.

[freebeard]

Suboptimal audio quality, but it introduces a non-silicon crystalline solution:

Graphene Use In Solar Cells

Graphene offers better cost and performance than Indium Tin Oxide. A product is offered but the promotion looks a little sketchy

This just uses 'transparent carbon' as a conductive layer. Research is ongoing with 2D molecules of various elements, sheets oriented at 'magic angles', and sandwiched with other molecules held between two layers -- all offer possibilites that are myriad.

OTOH DIY graphene solar reflectors:

DIY Graphene Parabolic Mirror