Maine's Energy futureSubmitted by mainething t3_11ym5f0 in Maine
mainething OP t1_jd8d24i wrote
Reply to comment by Norgyort in Maine's Energy future by mainething
Betty2theWhite t1_jdbi822 wrote
Pretty sure that area doesn't have the snow fall we do.
kirkwooder t1_jdd2hm9 wrote
ikr? Pretty sure MaineDOT actually counts on that median space being available for cost effective snow removal.
[deleted] t1_jd8rxlv wrote
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mainething OP t1_jd8tx0f wrote
maintaining the panels? here is a Massachusetts's installation..
[deleted] t1_jd8wwr5 wrote
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jihadgis t1_jd9qmc8 wrote
I'm not even remotely qualified, but it seems obvious that maintaining several/many solar farms along the median-located transmission line would incur less maintenance costs over time than tending a relatively delicate network over the course of hundreds of linear miles ... in traffic.
[deleted] t1_jd9sk4b wrote
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jarnhestur t1_jd8gr14 wrote
Yeah. Let’s talk about how great the Chinese power grid is in their rural areas. 😂
Erin-DidYouFindMe t1_jd8ny4a wrote
.... the reason why China is heavily investing into solar is because of their rural issues. Its their solution to it. Because its been repeatedly proven to be way more effective at providing consistent power to the small scale, decentralized rural communities.
You also have the benefit of creating a by-proxy mesh network, which prevents outages like you see in Texas when the centralized infrastructure fails.
jarnhestur t1_jd8omww wrote
Agreed. But taking a single picture of some solar panels stuck on the middle of a random road with no context doesn’t really prove anything.
China’s power grid is a mess, and still relies a lot of coal. Yeah, they are doing solar, but let’s not hold them up as some kind of leader in it. Their rural infrastructure is incredibly archaic.
Erin-DidYouFindMe t1_jd8rmlu wrote
...Not really sure what the issue is?
China went through their industrial revolution 110-or-so years after us. We've had almost a century to expand our infrastructure into our rural communities.
The things you're complaining about - it being a mess (underdevelopment, lack of robust infrastructure) and them using coal - both of those things are solved by the work their doing with solar panels, like in the picture above.
Hope that clarifies. Let me know if you'd like any other information.
jarnhestur t1_jd8xyte wrote
I don't think holding up China as an example of how the US should further develop our power grid is very smart or even applicable.
Erin-DidYouFindMe t1_jd8ypls wrote
China, Korea, Japan, and Nordic Countries are all doing this (or nearly identical) systems, many modeled off of the Chinese model you see above. China is - for all intents and purposes - the most prolific solar producer in the world.
Your feelings about the Chinese are blinding you to the solutions that are being created.
jarnhestur t1_jd99g1q wrote
China's power grid is an absolute mess. Also, China is one of the worst worst polluters. This isn't a feeling issue - it's a reality issue.
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This isn't about solar power - I'm all for solar power. However, holding the Chinese power grid up as what we should be aiming for is... laughable.
Erin-DidYouFindMe t1_jd9dwti wrote
> This isn't about solar power
That is the topic and I'm not deviating it to argue about something that no one is disagreeing with...
> Holding the Chinese power grid up
No one is doing this.
Saying China is doing a good job at building up their infrastructure isn't saying they have the best grid ever, its just stating a fact that their renewable energy and infrastructure spending is both modern-oriented and proven efficient towards their goal of creating a robust, green power grid. As proven by several European countries, Japan, the US, South Korea, and even super rural places in Africa. China is just doing a lot more of it - in part because they need to, to get off coal and make their grid more robust.
China is also working on curtailment efficiency (Mongolian parts wasted about 10-12% because the solar panels are producing more than the curtailment can handle) and are doing so, in part, by developing a combination of centralized and decentralized "mesh network" solar panel grid system that's shown to be highly effective. A model the US should be more oriented towards.
Again, for a country that went through their industrial revolution 100 years after us - who are, in effect, 100 years behind us in power grid infrastructure building and development.
By... doing things like what is specifically in that picture and in this post.
jarnhestur t1_jd9qyjl wrote
China is one of the worst polluters in the world:
https://ge.usembassy.gov/chinas-air-pollution-harms-its-citizens-and-the-world/
mainething OP t1_jd8leu5 wrote
jarnhestur t1_jd8o0n1 wrote
thehonorablechairman t1_jdbr775 wrote
Yes, China needs to modernize, that's why they're building a shit ton of solar panels, and it seems to be working pretty well so far.
US also needs to modernize, maybe we could also build a shit ton of solar panels, since it seems to be working in other places.
jarnhestur t1_jdcftr3 wrote
Sure - but the point of putting them in the middle of the road and saying that's how Maine should do it doesn't seem to be applicable to me.
Putting power related infrastructure in the middle of a rural road seems like a poor location.
I'm all for solar power, in general, but putting a bunch of panels where cars can hit them seems dumb.
AppexRedditor t1_jd8vd1i wrote
Not sure how this is supposed to convince anyone that putting solar panels in a median is a good idea
HarlemGlobefrotter t1_jd8pcxs wrote
That’s a chart of total installations; that doesn’t disprove the comment about how crappy Chinese rural power is. Just shows they install a lot, which is to be expected given the large urban populace and heavy urban shift since the 1980s.
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