TheRogIsHere t1_jd96abl wrote on March 22, 2023 at 6:55 PM

Beyond teh fact that this would cost $774 bazillion (give or take a gazillion), you can't just put 300 miles of solar panels on the ground. They need to be at an angle to be efficient, especially in a high latitude state like Maine.

Are we going to pay people to just shovel all the snow off after every blizzard? What about when the plows blast and bury the panels- or destroy them with all the gravel?

But please- tell me more about what an awesome idea this is!

piratecheese13 t1_jd97dxq wrote on March 22, 2023 at 7:01 PM

Solar panels with motors on them to be pointing whatever direction they need whatever time of day they need and whatever season they need to get optimal sun

Oh and if you pump energy back into a solar cell, it generates heat. Diodes be cool like that.

TheRogIsHere t1_jd9bzba wrote on March 22, 2023 at 7:31 PM

Solar panels are fine with a few inches of snow, not feet of it or worse if plows pile it up. And diodes can't melt a half inch of gravel that's there all winter and spring.

But the alternative is that we will need a few hundred miles of sun-tracking motorized panel units that sit on top of concrete foundations, in the median of highways that motorists can crash into, and plows can repeatedly blast and destroy with snow, salt, gravel, and whatever else is on the road.

So it will be $983 bazillion? We should just launch a satellite into space with a few hundred panels on it, and have a really long extension cord that comes back down to Earth.

WalkerBRiley t1_jd9if5i wrote on March 22, 2023 at 8:11 PM

We had all of three storms that dumped enough snow to cause concern this year, and two of those melted off the next day.

I think the 'snow' excuse has had it's day in Maine. We're slowly warming up, and it's thanks to whiny excuses like these that do nothing to help the situation and everything to stall doing something actually helpful.