Net zero. But not effectively zero. They sell energy during the day when no one needs it and buy it an night when we all need it. If we all switched to solar and heat pumps there would be blackouts and an energy crisis

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PyWoody 4 hours ago | parent [-]

What? They store the surplus in their batteries during the day and use it at night.

I genuinely do not understand why people are so afraid of solar. It's baffling.

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juleiie 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Solar generates like 1/10 in the northern countries for half of the year. No batteries currently can solve this.

The problem with global ecological regulations is they never differentiate between countries on the equator or 30th parallel with countries around 60. They expect everyone to only run on sun and wind. It isn't possible. There has to be at least nuclear which is ridiculously expensive.

It's generally not an easy problem to solve otherwise it wouldn't be a problem anymore.

First sensible thing to do is to relax the expectations for countries like Poland that have no good way to compete with other countries energy wise because of geographical location that noone chooses.

It is extremely unfair to treat everyone the same even though every country has different energy resources.

	▲	coryrc 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		There's a solution that costs less than fossil fuels, but it's a coordination problem and the USA is structurally unable to solve those anymore. I guess the Soviet Union wins the last laugh? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_Landing_Solar_Community

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chongli 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Because the sun doesn't shine every day. Where I live, the sky is overcast 90% of the time in the winter. You can't charge the batteries during the summer and run them all winter.

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blackcatsec 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

They've fallen victim to a catastrophically easy scare tactic, unfortunately. "The sun only shines during the day therefore solar is bad!" Dumb, but easy.

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applied_heat 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

In Toronto there is only daylight for 9 hours in winter

Yes surely some days are cloudy

So some days you get 5% capacity factor, and need some other energy source as well

So it harms the economics of the venture

Look at the profitability of companies building utility scale solar farms, they cost 100 million and the company hopes to get a 10% return and pay a 3% dividend.

They still have to contend with moving parts for tracking the angle of the sun, fans on inverters, contactors, clearing snow, mowing grass, site drainage, tornadoes etc, so sometimes it is not as easy as it sounds

All for a 7%? Why shouldn’t they just buy the s&p 500 and call it a day

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declan_roberts 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

And in my experience as someone who is actually trying to DO something, is exactly right.

But to be clear, it's less about night vs day and more about summer vs winter.

	▲	caseysoftware 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		^ This. I had a 20kWh array and 18kWh of batteries in Texas and it was GREAT in the summer. It'd start charging by 6am and be charged by 9am, even with simultaneous usage. Then we'd live off solar for the day (even with HVAC), go back on batteries around 9pm and they'd be out around 4am. No problem. But during an overcast winter day, the stack wouldn't get power until 8/9, not make it to 50%, start discharging by 4/5pm, and be out by 10/11pm. It would easily be 8-10 hours where we were wholly dependent on the grid. Not a problem, just a constraint to acknowledge and plan for.