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[–] 18 points 2 years ago (21 children)

People also don't realize that too much power is just as bad as too little, worse in fact. There's always useful power sinks: pumped hydro, batteries, thermal storage, but these are not infinite.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (19 children)

    Stupid question but can we not like, make toggleable solar panels? Like if I Just pull the plug extracting power from a solar panel does it explode or break or something?

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  • [+] -7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (18 children)

    Not really. You can discharge into the ground, but for large installations even the ground has a limited (local) capacity.

    Edit: explain yourselves, downvoting cowards

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (9 children)
    1. Unplug solar panel array
    2. Less electricity being generated
    3. ...
    4. Profit (for the power company)
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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (8 children)

    My understanding is that most large solar arrays don't have this capability in any sort of automatic way, and at these levels of power it's a bit more complicated than "just unplug it".

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    This seems like a massive oversight on behalf of the park designers.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    One of many issues caused by the assumption that solar would only ever be a minor part of the grid.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    most large solar arrays don't have this capability in any sort of automatic way

    Look at this "manual" unplugger:

    and at these levels of power it's a bit more complicated than "just unplug it".

    Unplug many.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    "Everything is so fucking simple that I can easily figure out the solutions to giant societal problems with 15 minutes of googling" is the dumbest take I've heard all day. Granted it's only 6am but still.

    Maybe you're not fucking Sun Tzu, Einstein and Jesus rolled in to one and there might be the occasional issue that's slightly more complicated than your armchair quarterback solutions.

    Christ you people piss me off.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    I have no idea what i am talking about... But what would happen if you pulled a black tarp over the panel? Could even be automatic like the blends on a building. And even partial.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    That's extremely expensive and not really scaleable.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago* (3 children)

    You're telling me a toggleable panel that flips when it needs to is too expensive? You're already installing the panels. You're already doing all that. The only difference is the material on the back side of the panel and of course some sort of crank and shaft to rotate it.

    Or if only there was some sort of powered component that could rotate it when it reached the capacity you know since the name of the game is power

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago*

    Solar panels are very cheap, and any modification, even just a moving cover, greatly ramps up prices. No, really.

    We just need a lot of panels to generate significant amounts of electricity, which would necessitate a large cover or a lot of mechanisms - which would get expensive on that scale.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    In addition to what allero said, you seem to only be considering future installations rather than existing ones. Retrofitting existing equipment is massively more expensive than changing a design prior to building it.

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