See post # 159 on this page.
Trump energy policy key to reviving economy — Biden plan destroys jobs, raise costs
- Thread starter anatta
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No, there is no single magic bullet.
Yes we will need nuclear as a baseload, which will be great when feasible.
Natural gas is a good transition fuel but eventually will be supplanted when green conversion is sufficient.
T. A. Gardner
Serial Thread Killer
The problem is that once output drops to around 70% per cell, the panel ampacity starts to rise and you run the increasing risk of a fire as voltage goes down and amperage goes up. Failed cells also increase this chance. You start looking at a serious electrical fire hazard using degraded panels.
Unrelated to the panels, I personally have seen at least a dozen badly installed home solar arrays. Typically, the company installing them shaves every corner they can and their engineers fail to consider stuff in the design that can cause serious and even dangerous problems.
They do stuff like:
Size the wire to the minimum allowable. This is a problem in Arizona where the wiring is run in metal conduit and the wire often exceeds the 75 C degree rise allowed by Code. This will result in the premature failure of the insulation and can result in grounding and shorts.
They often undersize the breaker that is installed in the home's service. I've seen two that were like that with the breaker so hot that you couldn't touch it up to 30 minutes after replacement.
Another is they do the roof penetrations wrong and your roof leaks. They put it in their contract that this might happen and it is on you to fix it.
Depending on the array installed, the roof might not structurally support the added load causing your rafters or trusses to sag and the roof to become unstable or hold water.
They will also put a solar array on an old roof without a second thought. That means when you go to re-shingle your roof you have to remove the array before that can happen and then reinstall it afterwards. That usually requires a professional and can add a thousand or more to your roofing cost.
While panel fires themselves are rare, they do happen. Usually though, it is a sloppy installation by workers and the engineer that designed your system cutting corners to save cost that's the real danger.
However, like I said, once the voltage drops to about 70% things start to not work any more. Its no different than trying to run your 120 VAC computer off 80 VAC. That doesn't work and you wipe out the computer's power supply in short order.
Companies do cut corners to increase profits. That is exactly what happens in nuke plants. When that goes bad, and it does, then you have real trouble.
T. A. Gardner
Serial Thread Killer
Three Mile Island was a worst case scenario for the US nuclear power industry. The operators did everything wrong. In fact, they contributed to the seriousness of the accident by their incorrect actions. The David Besse nuclear plant in Ohio had the almost exact same thing happen at that plant several months earlier but the operators there recognized the problem and safely shut the plant down.
Even with everything that happened at TMI, nobody died from the accident. Nobody got cancer as a result. There was no environmental disaster that followed. The plant was cleaned up safely, and the cost of the cleanup was less than that of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico where 11 people died, and the environmental disaster that followed was immense.
US, and French, nuke plants are just about as bullet proof as anything can be. They're far more safe than conventional plants and truly are environmentally friendly--far more so than solar and wind. It's the lack of knowledge and fear mongering about nuclear power that has gotten it a bad rep.
That type of installation would never be allowed here.
We have strict building codes.
By the way, at an average degradation rate of 0.5% per year it would still require
Much longer than 30 years to reach 70 %
Furthermore, inverters are required, either per panel (ideal) or per system.
Either way output voltage is maintained but thanks for playing.
No, it is all the other accidents that you didn't mention that instill fear.
T. A. Gardner
Serial Thread Killer
Like?
Chernobyl? That was a graphite moderated fast fission reactor that is not used ANYWHERE in the Western world because it is an inherently dangerous design that produces weaponizable plutonium as a byproduct of operation. It is not a relevant example for that reason. Chernobyl also lacked a secondary containment and the plant was shoddily built because it was done by an unaccountable government.
Fukushima? That was a boiling water reactor design common in commercial plants. The issue there was the plant was overwhelmed by a one in a thousand plus year event and the company operating it had a very bad case of myopia as to its safety as a design. Aside from that, Fukushima didn't have a secondary containment as is required by US and French regulations. Had it had such a containment, it likely wouldn't have been the disaster it was even slightly.
Or, lessor known ones like SL-1 in Idaho. That was a criticality incident where three technicians died. Cleanup took about a year.
So, what's the big deal? Industrial accidents do happen. The nuclear power industry has a tremendously good track record of operation compared to most other industries.
What is it that makes you afraid of nuclear power?