| ▲ | SPICLK2 7 hours ago |
| I find the idea of blanketing mountainous wilderness in relatively short-lived e-waste just awful. Surely there are much better terrains for solar panels? |
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| ▲ | ehhthing 7 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| Modern solar panels last around 30 years, so I wouldn't exactly call it "short-lived". Economically, I'm sure the locations chosen were optimal. You'd imagine that actual mountainous wilderness would be a much more expensive terrain to blanket with solar panels, compared to flat areas. If there were other choices, economically they'd better options. |
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| ▲ | SPICLK2 7 hours ago | parent [-] | | Given the vast amount of flat, well-lit terrain within the borders of China, it should be clear that the pictured projects (and the other "blanket a mountain in solar panels" projects that are easily discoverable) are not about the economics of power generation. | | |
| ▲ | cyp0633 6 hours ago | parent [-] | | At least it's better than sending peasants into the mountains and building solar panels on the flat field that has been growing crops for thousands of years. |
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| ▲ | zemvpferreira 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Yes let us wait for an optimal aesthetic solution for another 50 years while we choke on our own fumes. Plenty of time to rearrange the deck chairs. |
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| ▲ | SPICLK2 6 hours ago | parent [-] | | China already has one (if we're insisting on solar power generation) - 700,000 sq. mi of desert. It's also not just aesthetic - flat terrain is just so much more practical. | | |
| ▲ | barbazoo 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | I love how they’re just building and building, adding more and more capacity and people here are arguing whether it’s in the right location. It’s laughable. | |
| ▲ | lm28469 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | > flat terrain is just so much more practical. Outside of peak summer it's much more optimal to have a south facing slope actually. | | |
| ▲ | Koffiepoeder 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Additionally, solar panels can become too hot and that reduces their efficiency. Also, deserts are famously known for dust. Since it rarely rains, you get a dust buildup, further compromising solar efficiency in deserts. I'm not saying that deserts are a bad place for solar. What I'm trying to say is - it's often worse than people think and it requires special infrastructure. |
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| ▲ | blitzar 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Bring back those big beautiful chimeys, burning their beautiful coal and blanketing us in the warm glorious embrace of soot and fly ash. |
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| ▲ | budgefrankly 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| In this particular case I believe the mountain is largely karst (limestone) and the panels substantially reduced erosion -- particularly of soil -- leading to an increase in fauna that thrive in the shade. As others have said, it's hardly waste, it's an installation with a 30-year lifespan. |
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| ▲ | lm28469 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Still much better and lower impact than whatever the fuck we'd been doing for the past 200 years |
