bitfriend6 t1_ja26w1q wrote
There's more to PVs than just the panel itself. It's also the manufacturing and nighttime electricity storage. This is non-marginal when PV manufacturing is dirtier and riskier than combustion engineering, because boilers don't require special acids to be made. At least not on a simple level. The larger supply chain needs to be addressed, regardless of how much wishful thinking currently happens most PVs are still made in China and most are made in appalling, dirty conditions that actively contribute to global warming & thus represent an external climate cost to PVs as even the best PVs don't last more than 25 years. Gen 1 PVs are already hitting their end-of-life and most are being landfilled in Asia, contributing to the global microplastics problem.
This doesn't discredit PVs as a technology, but it does discredit neoliberal capitalism as a means to deliver it. We need to stop importing energy, including manufactured energy devices such as PVs and electronics in general.
dasunt t1_ja4mw2q wrote
There's probably some stuff we could do over the course of a decade or two that would help mitigate the battery issue.
For example, modern water heaters can keep water hot for a decent amount of time - oversize them, and there could be a setup that heats water during the day for use at night. Fridges could be similar, but with cooling. And infrastructure at work could allow EVs to charge during the day. Cooling is another area.
Heating will likely be a problem though. Even with heat pumps, a large amount of electricity will be used. In theory, one could build energy efficient homes with thermal mass. In practice, homes tend to have longer lifespans - unlike appliances, the average home should last for decades before being replaced.
We're going to need something to provide electricity at night, be it wind, hydro, etc.
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