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Apple Building Solar Farm at North Carolina Data Center
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Nothing is free. It cost plenty of environmental resources and money to build and install solar panels.
Really? No one said there weren't some initial and even continuing issues with production of the equipment and disposal of spent resources.
However, burning coal to produce power also requires the continous mining of that coal, which in and of itself uses up resources and can be environmentally damaging.
The bottom line is that for the initial cost and relatively small waste produced, solar is a much better alternative. We can't afford to wait around for the perfect answer, we must always move to the next best option if that is all that's viable at the moment.
New Hybrid Plant
There was just a new hybrid plant opened in Germany where they use wind energy to split water to harvest hydrogen gas. Stored hydrogen gas can be burned to water at any given time e.g. at night when there is no sun or for that wind energy plant when there is no wind.
This could be a model here, too. Store the energy in form of hydrogen and all you produce when burning it for energy is water. In case you wonder why not using batteries: Too expensive and batteries have only a certain life cycle and produce tons of toxic waste.
There was just a new hybrid plant opened in Germany where they use wind energy to split water to harvest hydrogen gas. Stored hydrogen gas can be burned to water at any given time e.g. at night when there is no sun or for that wind energy plant when there is no wind.
This could be a model here, too. Store the energy in form of hydrogen and all you produce when burning it for energy is water. In case you wonder why not using batteries: Too expensive and batteries have only a certain life cycle and produce tons of toxic waste.
Solar power with photovoltaic cells is a waste of resources and money, in its current form, compared to available energy sources (even compared to available "clean" energy) - but maybe they are building a focusing array - those actually have potential to be very good energy sources.
I bet they are getting billions of taxpayer dollars no matter what they are building.
I bet they are getting billions of taxpayer dollars no matter what they are building.
Well, actually I'm not sure which components you're referring to that have to be replaced every "few" years. Inverters have a standard warranty of at least 7 years, and usually 10 years these days (see here, for example: link to sunny boy and that can be extended to 20 years for a nominal fee. So I guess the inverter guys feel pretty confident about a long lifetime.
Solar panels are usually rated and warrantied for at least 80% output after a long long time (usually 20 years).
I spent three years building the REC solar plant in Singapore, and I can tell you it is one of the cleanest and most environmentally friendly large-scale industrial operations on the planet. As for production energy use, it is intensive, but solar is still a net producer of energy over the lifetime of the panel (i.e. the power produced by the solar panels far exceeds the power consumed in production of the panel, all the way down the value stream). I think your worries would be better placed elsewhere.
Solar is not "the answer", but it's a step in the right direction, and good bit better than burning coal to make electricity to run your coffee pot (and computer, and iPad, and iPod, and iPhone, and TV).
Coal is still a really good option...if we choose needlessly expensive energy sources we take away from money that can be spent creating better medicines, funding other science, making better engines, creating better living structures, funding libraries, teaching children to read, feeding the poor, etc.
The problem with hydrocarbons is that they are soo freaking energy dense. Ben Franklin said beer was evidence that God loved us and wanted us to be happy. Incredibly energy dense hydrocarbons just lying in the ground is evidence God loves us and wants us to have a modern technologically capable society and create wealth and eliminate poverty via industry. I mean all you have to do is dig it up and burn it - its AMAZING!
WTF!?!?!?! Nuclear Power Plant? LOL!
Come on now...people are going away from Nuclear...Fusion is still 30 years away.
Solar is part of the future. Not the only part...but a part.
What are you smoking? You can't build new nuclear plants in the United States!
Solar and wind are easy to build....and much cheaper than building a nuke plant.
There is a strong anti-global warming consensus in the US simply because, the whole issue was brought up by the liberal, hippie, tree-hugging democrat, Al Gore. the whole issue is disputed by right-wing conservatives purely for political reasons.
When your pockets are being lined by huge Amerikan oil companies, you know, the companies that sell the product that is causing the problem, then of course you want the issue disputed and buried, preferably in the holes left from the mining and pumping.
You really have to be blinded by hate not to understanding that removing carbon that has been sitting in the ground for millions of years and dumping it into the atmosphere is going to have some adverse affect.
How is it inefficient. A distributed solar grid around the world, with fully connected nanowire cabling would give us all the power we needed 24/7.
To meet current energy demands for the ENTIRE WORLD, we would need the total area of solar panels to equal the area of Colarado and New mexico combined.
THAT IS ALL.
So, it really can be done.
And for those of you who argue that the sun goes away at night ... did you know power could be stored? Its called batteries, people.
If that area was distributed around the world, and if we had the right nano wires to transmit that power without a huge loss of energy, we could effective power our planet. The best part? solar energy doesn't put out any emissions, or radioactive waste.
Also, people have developed much more effective solar panels, including 3D cells (pretty thick ones) that capture a broader range of wavelengths, making them more efficient.
Solar power has a lot to offer to us, and I really like how Apple is thinking ahead with this one.
Also we could build solar power plants in space on on the moon. Lets see there was that one Gundam anime that had a solar power ring around the whole planet.
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WOW lots of solar power hate up in here!
Did you see the before & after - something like an 85% increase in greenspace, but facts aren't important.
The Datacenter needs 100 MW. They'd need to build the biggest solar plant in the world to be able to break even through a feed-in tariff.
You should learn what baseload generation is and what it needs to operate before you make claims like that.
And for those of you who argue that the sun goes away at night ... did you know power could be stored? Its called batteries, people.
Because of economies of scale, a grid energy storage battery doesn't behave like a AA Duracell. A grid energy storage battery is the size of a building, fails in 10 years, and starts losing its charge after 12 hours. So if you run your datacenter off solar + batteries, you're gonna have a lot of angry customers who can't access their data whenever it's overcast.
Actually the wind blows more at night.
There was just a new hybrid plant opened in Germany where they use wind energy to split water to harvest hydrogen gas. Stored hydrogen gas can be burned to water at any given time e.g. at night when there is no sun or for that wind energy plant when there is no wind.
This could be a model here, too. Store the energy in form of hydrogen and all you produce when burning it for energy is water. In case you wonder why not using batteries: Too expensive and batteries have only a certain life cycle and produce tons of toxic waste.
This sounds very interesting. Any links?
How many people have died in mining disasters? How many animals have died from oil spills? How many people have health issues due to living close to refineries and carbon based power plants? How many lives have been lost in wars fought over land containing these resources?
It is not a simple matter of just digging it up.
In Saguache County CO the electric company has one solar farm and is working on building another. Solar panels etc., have come a long way in recent years, including lower costs to purchase panels.
Glad to see Apple isn't like the Congress who earlier this year were arguing against CFBs! And could not pass a green energy bill!!!!
Stop it, our planet is getting warmer. There's no denying that. Whether or not humans have had an impact is debatable, and you know it. Educate yourself and stop listening to Al Gorelioni. I don't have time to educate the masses on Holocene Maximum. Let's just say it occurred before the Industrial Revolution.
There are several companies that have developed solar panels that are not rigid. You can roll them up. They can be almost any size also. Solar panels have come a long way.
Plug up your holes! Your argument sucks. It's the same as me saying the following:
How many people have died do to homicide? How many have died do to a natural disaster? How many people have health issues due to living close to McDonalds and other fast food institutions? How many lives have been lost in wars fought over land due to religious beliefs?
I've got a big mouse!
Attached is the web report for my solar array for yesterday.
Each panel is an internet node, and they all send telemetry back to the manufacturer's website where I can see near real-time performance of each panel.
"Lifetime" is 54 weeks since the panels came online. So if 46 m² of panels can do more than 13 mWh/year, imagine what hectares of panels could produce.
Another thing to note is that currently the panels are generating about half the power that they made in June-July (averaged daytime peak of 7kW or so, and high 50's to low 60's for kWh/day).
Attached is the web report for my solar array for yesterday.
Each panel is an internet node, and they all send telemetry back to the manufacturer's website where I can see near real-time performance of each panel.
"Lifetime" is 54 weeks since the panels came online. So if 46 m² of panels can do more than 13 mWh/year, imagine what hectares of panels could produce.
Another thing to note is that currently the panels are generating about half the power that they made in June-July (averaged daytime peak of 7kW or so, and high 50's to low 60's for kWh/day).
Attachments
