https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/09/the-stormy-relationship-between-solar-power-and-the-weather/
Solar panels have a love-hate relationship with nature.They need to be placed in exposed locations that get a lot of sunlight, but cloudy weather obviously reduces their production. Less obviously, more extreme weather—from snowstorms to hurricanes—can damage or even break solar hardware altogether. New research performed by Sandia National Laboratories and published in Applied Energy showcases how weather events can reduce the amount of energy produced by the United States' solar farms.
[...] Unpublished NREL research also suggests ways in which solar panels can better withstand extreme weather, Walker said. Methods include water-tight enclosures, modules mounted on three rails (rather than two), thicker glass, wind-calming fences, marine-grade steel, and through-bolting (rather than clamps). "It turns out that clamps are the smoking gun in a lot of module liberations, as it's called when a [photovoltaic] module blows off a rack," he said.
Applied Energy, 2021. DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.117508 (About DOIs)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 15 2021, @08:10PM (6 children)
Wow, I didn't know any better, so I assumed they were bolted on. Clamps???
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 15 2021, @08:54PM
Clamps should be fine if they are strong enough and well secured, and they better accommodate thermal expansion and building movement than through bolts, but "cheapest construction possible" is the reason building codes were invented.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 15 2021, @10:41PM (3 children)
Hey, panels are heavy enough to not move by all normal forces, add a few camps and it should be secure right!!?
Just like that Chinese bridge with the glass floor, the glass panels where heavy, a simple clamp would be enough...
Of maybe the first few generation of wind turbines, if we want it to spin as fast as possible, to produce more energy, they do not need breaks, they are totally useless, right!
All this fail to gake in account abnormal conditions, where high wind can produce extra effects, like a sail or a plan wing... or higher and higher vibrations or even reach the wind turbine resistance due to the extreme spinning velocity. Luckly the nature (weather in this case) is kind to remember those people that one should not ignore it...
... by the way, global warming will be solved either by us, or, one way or another, by the nature (killing most or all the people, be it extreme weather, mass extinction, Venus runaway, new glacier age, plagues, lack of food, whatever). Nature always win!
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday September 16 2021, @12:01AM (2 children)
I think it'll be solved by adaptation, but that's a bad word these days.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 16 2021, @01:31AM (1 child)
You are correct. We literally cannot stop it, so adapt we must.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 16 2021, @07:00PM
You sound like a bunch of progressives...???
(Score: 2) by bussdriver on Thursday September 16 2021, @03:11PM
Bolt holes are cheaper to make but WHERE do you put the holes in the panels?? no standard placement. clamping is the best solution for having no industry standard.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 15 2021, @08:43PM (11 children)
Pipes never leak oil and nuclear waste is just dreamy!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 15 2021, @08:58PM (7 children)
That's why I use clean coal. It's solid, so there's no risk of leaks, and when burned it creates food for trees.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 15 2021, @09:53PM (6 children)
What do you do with the ash? I hear it makes wonderful landfill.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 16 2021, @05:39AM (5 children)
You could use it to make roman concrete, you know, that stuff that is still strong 2000 years later.
You just have to be really sure about where you want your roads, bridges, and buildings to be.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday September 16 2021, @06:10PM (4 children)
Yes planning is important because you need find a spot where these structures will never be used by humans seeing as how any dust off them would be radioactive.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 16 2021, @08:31PM
Or, we could just reprocess the waste instead of playing stupid power games. Militaristic dick-waving is all the mainstream knows, I get it, but that doesn't make it anywhere near intelligent.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 17 2021, @12:09AM (2 children)
While coal ash is slightly radioactive, it is not substantially more so than granite. Avoiding stone buildings are you?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 17 2021, @03:39AM (1 child)
Not actually true. According to the USGS [usgs.gov] it is about the same as black shale.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 17 2021, @06:28AM
That is the fly ash. When incorporated into the concrete mix it is diluted back down to the lower end of the granitic range.
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Thursday September 16 2021, @04:55AM (2 children)
And discarded solar panels don't leach lead and other heavy metals into the groundwater.
You can count the number of solar cell recycling facilities in the world on one hand with fingers to spare currently. More are coming on line but a lot of old solar panels got dumped into land fills over the years.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 16 2021, @07:02PM (1 child)
If we were to recycle solar panels like we recycle coal, we would just burn them. Done.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 17 2021, @03:26AM
Probably less polluting, too.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Mockingbird on Wednesday September 15 2021, @09:26PM (1 child)
What about when the wind don't blow? What are your solar panels gonna do then? If we learned anything from Texas, . . .
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by bussdriver on Thursday September 16 2021, @03:15PM
Most of us already knew Texans are FOOLS so we didn't learn from Texas and Texans by their nature can't learn (by the nature of them being fools.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 15 2021, @09:28PM (10 children)
and recycling.
Production of steel is very carbon intensive.
Solar power is way over rated and then we still have the issue of batteries to deal with.
They keep building farms, but not building the recycling infrastructure for when these lost leaders need to be scraped.
Has anyone just considered turning off the fucking street lights?
Cars have lights.
How about we start reducing our addiction to energy use?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 15 2021, @10:12PM (9 children)
In the region where I live, they did turn off the street lamps.
Guess what, you can't see shit at night. Dangerous.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 15 2021, @10:28PM
The transients that get hit and killed is only a small price to pay for saving the planet.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday September 16 2021, @12:05AM (7 children)
Why don't you, like, bring a light with you?
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Mockingbird on Thursday September 16 2021, @12:24AM
Even more better, bring your Roomba along, and it will detect the shit with AI, and not smear it around! [cnn.com]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 16 2021, @01:34AM (5 children)
Why do you think the govt put up streetlights in the first place? Really, think hard about why they would go to the trouble and expense of erecting such things if they provided no benefit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 16 2021, @01:37AM
And just to be clear, I am speaking about the car drivers not being able to see shit, not pedestrians. This is a suburban area.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday September 16 2021, @04:17AM (2 children)
Like make lots of money for General Electric? I think it's a bit hasty to say that it provides no benefit.
That game probably has been played longer than you've been alive.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 16 2021, @07:05PM (1 child)
That it? General Electric? Naaah... think bigger. There's a global conspiracy, surely.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday September 17 2021, @12:00AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 17 2021, @03:21AM
Gas streetlights were first installed in cities to reduce muggings, but the proliferation of electric street lights we see today is mostly to give base load generators something to do when power consumption is at its lowest. Steam turbine plants such as coal and nuclear have a minimum power output requirement or they risk damaging the boilers, and it takes a few days to restart one if they shut it down completely. IIRC the power companies used to pay cities to convert to electric lighting.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 15 2021, @10:14PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 16 2021, @01:41PM (1 child)
This includes roof panels. Otherwise they get dirty and the sun can't get through all the dirt.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 17 2021, @03:11AM
It rains in most places. The bigger concern where I live is snow covering them.