**This is a heavily moderated subreddit. Please note these rules + sidebar or get banned:**
* If this post declares something as a fact, then proof is required
* The title must be fully descriptive
* No text is allowed on images/gifs/videos
* Common/recent reposts are not allowed (posts from another subreddit do not count as a 'repost'. Provide link if reporting)
*See [this post](https://redd.it/ij26vk) for a more detailed rule list*
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/interestingasfuck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
ok.. so i just redid the entire campaign (kinda backwards, protoss, zerg now terran) and holy shit char on hard is ... fuckign hard.. i can't get half way through.. i'm sure there is a way.. you start off with so much :/.. fucking kerrigan my guys. she keeps fuckign my shit up.
I live in a suburban area in guangdong province. Mad lads built at least one subway line with 20-30 stations EVERY YEAR since I moved there. This dynamic is something I never experienced in my life before.
For all of the other bickering going on in this comments section about how it looks, how nuclear would be more space-efficient, erosion (?), and plant-animal life impact, maintenance complexity is definitely the thing that jumps out at me.
The panels will provide shade for plants beneath, which will inevitably grow too much and damage/obscure the panels.
Just accessing all of them for cleaning due to the terrain seems difficult.
What about weather?
Aside from maintenance, Why not wind power on mountain tops? Wind is more or less a given up that high.
Why cover every side of a peak with panels? There’s bound to be some north-facing low-efficiency panels.
This one is near my house [https://wintonsolarfarm.com/](https://wintonsolarfarm.com/), they lease the farmland from the farmers and let them still run sheep on the property to keep the grass down
This is common all over the world.
You can hire people/goats to do this right now almost anywhere in the US.
It is called [Goatscaping](https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/cms/life-out-here/the-barn/goats-and-sheep/goats-for-hire).
Might be a CCP flex.
And if that’s the case, I don’t mind. If the USA wants to engage in a “clean energy race” I think that’s a healthy way to compare your global supremacy.
A "clean energy race" between the superpowers that doesn't actually achieve a diversified sustainable energy grid but only gives the impression that one side is doing better than the other sounds like an expensive waste of resources for no reason
Don't forget that the CCP is also totally willing to uproot entire counties of communities so they can do something like flood the valley with water for a hydro dam.
Never happens in the US... [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee\_Valley\_Authority#Eminent\_domain\_and\_family\_removal\_controversies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_Valley_Authority#Eminent_domain_and_family_removal_controversies)
Cost of cleaning & clearing panels is part of the total cost of the power. It’s more but lower skilled and paid work, something China has plenty of in the countryside.
China is built on cheap manufacturing, which requires cheap power.
Solar ls the cheapest total cost of power, even cheaper than coal.
Gets even cheaper if just one project can generate huge economies of scale from creating such large panel production capabilities to meet the projects deadlines.
With an extra bonus that the large production volume and lower panel cost makes for a great export to the rest of the world, who are both desperate for panels and the market size grows the cheaper panels are.
Its wins all around for China.
>Why cover every side of a peak with panels? There’s bound to be some north-facing low-efficiency panels.
If you look at the installation on the map you'll see they don't really put panels on the North-facing slopes, instead clustering them on sunny South-facing slopes. Smart!
https://www.google.com/maps/@34.7528444,110.6044631,15z/data=!3m1!1e3
^^/u/Dangerous_Limes
> The panels will provide shade for plants beneath, which will inevitably grow too much and damage/obscure the panels.
I feel like that's something they would've tackled during the planning stages. There's even solar panels in deserts that are being used even though there's constant sand storms. Planning stage solves all most of the time
> Why not wind power on mountain tops? Wind is more or less a given up that high.
Uhm. Did we watch the same video? It's a hill, not a mountain. You can walk up hills.
Definitely seems odd to put them on all sides of the hill though.
>Why cover every side of a peak with panels? There’s bound to be some north-facing low-efficiency panels.
South facing panels make the most total power, centralised around the middle of the day. East and west panels produce nearly as much power, but have peaks in the morning and afternoon. North facing panels still produce power, sure it's less but they help contribute in overcast conditions.
When you have grid connected panels, spreading the solar generation out over more of the day is highly desirable. It allows you to support loads for longer, and reduce the size of any batteries needed to smooth out production vs demand. Panels are far cheaper than batteries, so spamming them on all sides is cost effective.
>maintenance complexity is definitely the thing that jumps out at me.
Ya but its also less skilled worker compared with maintenance on a nuclear power plant. Here you need skilled solar technicians, electricians, and horticultural staff,
Nuclear means National Security involved in everything, Nuclear engineers, technicians with PHD degrees, etc. All these are higher skill and income bracket.
u/spacex_fanny provided a google earth link below that shows the region. The installation of panels covers various hillsides in the entire region. Not monolithically but fairly intensive coverage that stretches across about a 40 km long swath of hillsides.
[https://www.google.com/maps/@34.7528444,110.6044631,15z/data=!3m1!1e3](https://www.google.com/maps/@34.7528444,110.6044631,15z/data=!3m1!1e3)
Not wanting to sound stupid or like I’m being a dick, but what’s the difference between it spanning 80km and it being 1km 80 times? I guess this is where km2 is the most useful unit to use..
I think they're saying: is it 80 km x 80km, i.e. 6400 km², or is it 1km x 80km, i.e. 80 km²
There's a difference of two orders of magnitude, which is a massive difference in significance. Like you said km² would be a much better metric
As a massive solar energy fan I can say this.....that's hideous and a huge reasoning behind nuclear
Solar should cover, BLANKET, rooftops around the world. Not hillsides
I remember building a 80GW solar setup ... I used bots to place solar and inside every solar setup is a bot port to extend the length of how far bots reach. Just a bunch of those as blueprints
Yes I know about that strategy. I even tried it myself but the distances were getting out of hand and I would wait a lot of time before drones would carry panels to the empty space and build farms while I was waiting nervously for my energy crisis to end ... fun times :). I update this strategy thou when the spidertrons were released. Build a bunch of them and send them to location with bots and cargo. Also I generally build a modular train setup which helps with overall game speed on my setup and once my FPS drop under 50 I call it a day and stop progressing the map. 3RPM (consumed and sustained <-important aspect here meaning all science packs were consumed realtime into infinite upgrades) is the largest I've ever built.
I did the same thing with energy storage so I never had energy shortages as I'd overbuild storage to where the entire base could run on battery for multiple in-game days at a time. Was pretty damn fun.. but yea, fps drops made it a bit more difficult
[Nah, green energy is the real villain. Hasn't Koch Industries astroturf campaigns made that abundantly clear yet?](https://www.google.com/search?q=mountaintop+mining&rlz=1CAGUZK_enUS998&sxsrf=AJOqlzXuLUN4SydXvsf1bZK4SLgUQxX5ig:1678302924758&source=lnms&tbm=vid&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjm_Z7Nhc39AhUlFFkFHefyDTsQ0pQJegQIAhAG&biw=1366&bih=617&dpr=1#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:7dd751d7,vid:p5RcbPZXUZo)
It's my understanding that they built this far from the population in the middle of nowhere and use ultra high voltage lines to take the power where it needs to go.
Let's say this is a very hot, dry area. Do you think the shaded area could have some benefit? Like perhaps keeping the soil a little more moist due to the shade or giving sun relief for plants and animals?
Testing have shown that raspberry fields with some solar panel cover have a higher yield, so probably.
But depends on how close they are together.
For animals, they could provide shelter in amounts somewhere between a cave and some trees, again depending on way many factors... But trees would probably be at least equally good
The plants and animals in a hot and dry climate are well suited for the hot and dry climate. Building an artificial canopy would be detrimental to the vast majority of plants adapted to that ecosystem, and the animals (as well as endemic soil microorganisms) would suffer.
As a detector of massive bullshit I can say this... you're bullshitting and your "huge reasoning behind nuclear" for something being ugly is laughable.
On the other hand, I think this is brilliant. The land is steep and arid making it useless for farming and industry and the south facing slopes make it cheaper to install fixed solar with good exposure.
It's almost like they had professionals doing this who accounted for the issues before they did it.
I always find it hilarious when Reddit comments like the one above you who think they know a situation better than the hundreds of professionals who did the thing in the first place.
I’m an expert in a couple of things that lots of people have opinions on.
I can assure you that 95% of the shit you read on reddit regarding complex systems/issues are coming from people that have no idea what they are talking about.
People are fine with destroying a landscape to build buildings, mine oil, and minerals, but the moment you put solar panels on it, people are offended, lol.
Do you also get offended when you look at New York with all those hideous skyscrapers?
The point is that these could be on the skyscrapers and over parking lots, we could have shade, energy and not blanket the hillsides but we can't get along well enough to do it
Also we need grid scale installations and appropriate transmission infrastructure. While we should also be doing rooftop solar, we also need large solar installs
My buddy, roof tops are already filled with stuff. You can't put much more up there many times and to be frank, the roof area is too small. It's not worth the effort.
You're assuming they're providing energy to a city center *with* skyscrapers and parking lots. Maybe they are, maybe they're not, everything needs power, not just urban cityscapes.
CHina bad for producing too much CO2.
CHina bad for building ugly solar farms.
CHina bad for investing in nuclear tech that could be weaponized.
They literally can't do anything right if that's the narrative we want to push.
America always has to have an enemy to focus on. If they don't then people will start realizing it's not the Chinese who are paying you the same wages since the 80s. It's not the Chinese who are denying you sick days and maternal leave. It's not the Chinese who are treating you like dogshit while you make the fortune that others get to enjoy because they were born to rich parents and you weren't.
When I was a kid it was the soviets, then it became the "terrorists", now they're trying to make the Russians that but it just doesn't stick because they keep getting shown as incompetent so I guess the Chinese it is.
If Americans didn't have a foreign enemy to focus on they might just sit down and examine their lives for once and realize who it actually is who's fucking them over daily.
I mean Cuba found a "cure" for lung cancer, and america banned is customers from getting it. (I put cure in quotation marks because it doesn't cure you it just slows down the disease so by the time it affects you you have already died)
WTF what dipshit downvoted this
It's apparently true, for at least certain types of lung cancer
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/01/09/cuba-has-lung-cancer-vaccine-many-u-s-patients-cant-get-without-breaking-law/1019093001/
Windfarms generally still require clearing the land. You have to haul massive metal fans to the site, perform routine maintenance, etc., which requires access roads. Plus, you want to avoid issues with trees and wildlife on the site that could cause premature wear and tear. They're not easy on the landscape either.
With bountiful labor, you'd think they would spend some of it on landscaping where the panels are going. I'd expect that servicing the panels is at least marginally more requiring in expertise.
There are no moving parts In a solar panel. If the area receives enough rain to wash away occasional dust on the panel, there’s really not much maintenance to do.
Can’t tell if you’re joking but solar arrays are organised in strings of panels wired in series. If 1 panel went down it would only take out around 20-50 panels depending on wiring system
It is ugly, but hear me out: you could do this to a couple hundred square miles of empty Nevada desert and power most of the country. You already nuked that desert so you can't be that concerned about its ugliness!
If the US built it it's perfect. It won't erode soil, it won't affect wildlife, vegetation would cower at the thought of blocking America's energy. Rain and dust? Pshhh. Freedom will take care of it.
Daft cunts act like solar panels act differently when installed in different countries. This is what a solar farm looks like everywhere.
I’m not a solar expert, I’m going off of stuff I just googled so I could be wrong. I looked up what a Km of solar panels would generate per year, multiplied it by 80, and its around 44,000 gigawatts a year produced. I then took the average annual power consumption of a house in my state (it’s one of the highest) and divided 44,000 gigawatts by the average house hold and it this field would power every house in my state and still have some left over. This field barely covers a percentage of land where I live.
Erosion is largely a function of how much water flows across the ground and at what speed.
A huge factor in designing drainage systems and preventing water erosion is the runoff coefficient of a surface, which is basically a measure of how much a surface slows down water running over it and its permeability. Lawn is has a pretty coefficient, concrete is low, and glass is even lower.
If soil absorbs all the water that falls very quickly, there's no erosion. However, soil can only take in so much water at a time. The panels increase the concentration of the water falling on the soil to the edges of the panels, causing the absorption capacity of the soil along that thin line to be quickly overwhelmed. It also pummels the soil there, directly leading to erosion. Because less water is absorbed at the point of contact, more water builds up, decreasing the time it takes before water is falling on water instead of on soil, thus starting a flow. Water going downhill bumping into every little protrusion, nook, and cranny goes pretty slow and is more likely to be absorbed into the soil. Water riding on water goes fast and further reduces the opportunity the soil has to absorb the water. As the mass of unabsorbed water builds and its speed increases, it's more likely to build enough momentum to start moving soil downhill.
Not erosion control but with much of the ground vegetation being choked off seems like that would quickly convert the surface into a surface that is markedly easier to erode. Especially on a slope
They also have the coverage to capture like 95+% of the precipitation in gutters and pipes before it reaches the earth. Maybe that's mitigating erosion?
What kind of wilderness are peeps seeing there, it's litteraly dry dead grass on hills that don't seem to be able to support any life so why not put the panels there
Yep, this thread is a flawless example of how propaganda affects ‘free thinking Westerners’ just as much as any other country.
China could literally cure cancer and the Americans would still get pissed over it because that’s what they’ve been taught.
Bah, you guys are way too quick to judge whenever something is done in China, this could be a positive development, maybe its not perfect, maintenance might be a bitch but I'm sure there're room for improvement.
Funny how using the wilderness for any other purpose is absolutely fine, but the second it’s done for solar power it’s suddenly a massive issue? Even when it doesn’t even cause any harm?
Some people in this comment section have an agenda or are flat out stupid
*China builds massive green energy infrastructure*
Redditors: "BUT BUT EROSION DUST UGLY MAINTENANCE AMINALS FUCK THE CCP!1!!!"
Y'all bigoted motherfuckers. This is what solar farms look like in every single country.
[China's curing cancer faster and cheaper than anywhere else. But some worry they may be going too fast.](https://twitter.com/Quicktake/status/1218695856553189377)
Nightmare to maintain, huh?
Other forms of power generation don't have operating costs? Do people think you build a nuclear or coal plant and it just runs itself?
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/06/03/pv-plants-lasting-longer-with-lower-operational-costs/
"The OpEx expense decline is driven by a 'precipitous' decline in recent years in operations and maintenance (O&M) costs, to '$5-8/kWDC per year in many cases'" (this survey is of US utility scale PV, OpEx in China is probably as low or lower since it is a leader in clean energy tech).
https://www.statista.com/statistics/184754/cost-of-nuclear-electricity-production-in-the-us-since-2000/
Nuclear power OpEx for comparison.
You could easily fly drones over the solar farm to find panels that need maintenance (probably how they got those aerial shots).
You realize they built the most nuclear reactors as well right? China leads on most energy categories by a fuckton. They burn the most coal, build the most renewables, and build the most nuclear lmao.
Fly over the mountains of the Pacific Northwest USA, and look down on the countless square miles of ~~forest~~ tree farms. Your eyes tell you that it's a rich environment filled with animals and birds. Reality on the ground is that beneath the trees, there's virtually *nothing*. It's a tree plantation, like corn stalks but made of douglas fir.
Maybe soar over the desert southwest and look down on the ~~untouched~~ desert scenery criss-crossed with motorcycle and ATV tracks - former natural areas stripped of their native plants and deeply rutted by gas-powered toys.
Look down on Florida from an airplane and regale yourself with thousands of square miles of tightly packed houses with boat docks alongside canals that were created to drain the great swamplands that were once one of Earth's greatest ecosystems. Now it's just lawns and shrubbery connected by roads and drainage canals that double as boating venues.
Grab yourself some Bitcoin while you're at it, part of the cryptocurrency boom that consumes more electricity than entire countries (Australia and Argentina to name two,) A third of world electric generation is done with coal, another 22% with natural gas - both spewing CO2 into the atmosphere and warming *everything*.
It's all right there in front of us. Solar farms have no monopoly on human environmental devastation.
One of my neighbors moved out and a new one moved in and they tore out 3 Joshua trees in their backyard and got fined like 30k for each one. Apparently no one but the city/state government can move them even if they fall. A lot of times the fallen ones have new “roads” made around them because no one wants to call the city to have them moved.
It would be so cool if the US could attempt to do any one of these Chinese Mega projects, from solar cells on mountain tops, to mega hydroelectric dams, to high speed rail.
Super impressed with China's technological achievements. No so much impressed with the CCP and their surveillance state. That being said, I'm embarrassed for the US, its lack of mega projects, the fascists that have infiltrated their governments and it's spying program on all Americans.
This comment section urgently needs a waaambulance, but sadly, they're all tied up in ohio. But they're right, America should just continue fracking,the landscape will look so much more beautiful.
Hey armchair reddit conservatives: tell me again how solar farms are beyond human engineering capabilities, not beneficial, impossibly grid destabilizing, etc.?
**This is a heavily moderated subreddit. Please note these rules + sidebar or get banned:** * If this post declares something as a fact, then proof is required * The title must be fully descriptive * No text is allowed on images/gifs/videos * Common/recent reposts are not allowed (posts from another subreddit do not count as a 'repost'. Provide link if reporting) *See [this post](https://redd.it/ij26vk) for a more detailed rule list* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/interestingasfuck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
China spams builds like I do in city building games.
You must construct additional panels.
Spawn more overlords
You have not enough minerals
Power Overwhelming!
I read that as a Protoss. Well done.
Mine more minerals
I've already checked you out commander ;)
*Job’s finished!*
ok.. so i just redid the entire campaign (kinda backwards, protoss, zerg now terran) and holy shit char on hard is ... fuckign hard.. i can't get half way through.. i'm sure there is a way.. you start off with so much :/.. fucking kerrigan my guys. she keeps fuckign my shit up.
Always bait with a supply depot for her swarm, then burst her down
Meanwhile, us here in America… “Work work work… ready to work!” Standing around, waiting for government approvals.
We didn’t construct additional pylons
Government is too busy clicking repeatedly on all of the sheeps.
Sim City: I'm going to build 4 stadiums right next to each other!
Damn Philly and Detroit catching strays! It actually makes a lot of sense for a number of reasons though.
Yea, we can make the parking lot even biggerer
Actually one of the benefits is being able to condense the parking
I actually liked that part of Philly.
Then throw Godzilla and a tornado at it.
And detain the ethnic minorities in the North in "rehabilitation centres".
Sim City China Edition would be WILD
China IS someone's SIMCITY.
Xinnie the Pooh?
without considering consequence , ended by alien invasion
I bet they still build faster than you do in your games
Micro is hard Q_Q
I live in a suburban area in guangdong province. Mad lads built at least one subway line with 20-30 stations EVERY YEAR since I moved there. This dynamic is something I never experienced in my life before.
In 3 years at the start of the 21st century, China poured more concrete than the USA did in the entire 20th century.
Build like AI in ago of empire
That's what 4 thousand years of continuous advanced culture creates, a shit load of humans. See the same thing in India.
China is playing real life minecraft
That looks fun to service..
For all of the other bickering going on in this comments section about how it looks, how nuclear would be more space-efficient, erosion (?), and plant-animal life impact, maintenance complexity is definitely the thing that jumps out at me. The panels will provide shade for plants beneath, which will inevitably grow too much and damage/obscure the panels. Just accessing all of them for cleaning due to the terrain seems difficult. What about weather? Aside from maintenance, Why not wind power on mountain tops? Wind is more or less a given up that high. Why cover every side of a peak with panels? There’s bound to be some north-facing low-efficiency panels.
There was a article I read about how farmers would put goat and other animals under the panels so they'll have shade and eat the grass.
Now, that makes a lot of sense.
This one is near my house [https://wintonsolarfarm.com/](https://wintonsolarfarm.com/), they lease the farmland from the farmers and let them still run sheep on the property to keep the grass down
Until the goats find a way to stand on top of the panels. Cuz they will if it’s like the top of my truck. Those fuckers like to pretend to be tall.
This is common all over the world. You can hire people/goats to do this right now almost anywhere in the US. It is called [Goatscaping](https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/cms/life-out-here/the-barn/goats-and-sheep/goats-for-hire).
But if the goats are secretly capitalist, they will sabotage
China is secretly capitalist so its okay
They have solar panel roofs over some parking lots in AZ. It’s awesome in the summer time
Might be a CCP flex. And if that’s the case, I don’t mind. If the USA wants to engage in a “clean energy race” I think that’s a healthy way to compare your global supremacy.
A "clean energy race" between the superpowers that doesn't actually achieve a diversified sustainable energy grid but only gives the impression that one side is doing better than the other sounds like an expensive waste of resources for no reason
we do it with space until we can disprove the opposing country
Don't forget that the CCP is also totally willing to uproot entire counties of communities so they can do something like flood the valley with water for a hydro dam.
Never happens in the US... [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee\_Valley\_Authority#Eminent\_domain\_and\_family\_removal\_controversies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_Valley_Authority#Eminent_domain_and_family_removal_controversies)
Cost of cleaning & clearing panels is part of the total cost of the power. It’s more but lower skilled and paid work, something China has plenty of in the countryside. China is built on cheap manufacturing, which requires cheap power. Solar ls the cheapest total cost of power, even cheaper than coal. Gets even cheaper if just one project can generate huge economies of scale from creating such large panel production capabilities to meet the projects deadlines. With an extra bonus that the large production volume and lower panel cost makes for a great export to the rest of the world, who are both desperate for panels and the market size grows the cheaper panels are. Its wins all around for China.
>Why cover every side of a peak with panels? There’s bound to be some north-facing low-efficiency panels. If you look at the installation on the map you'll see they don't really put panels on the North-facing slopes, instead clustering them on sunny South-facing slopes. Smart! https://www.google.com/maps/@34.7528444,110.6044631,15z/data=!3m1!1e3 ^^/u/Dangerous_Limes
Seriously, how the fuck would some rando on reddit know shit about this?
> The panels will provide shade for plants beneath, which will inevitably grow too much and damage/obscure the panels. I feel like that's something they would've tackled during the planning stages. There's even solar panels in deserts that are being used even though there's constant sand storms. Planning stage solves all most of the time
> Why not wind power on mountain tops? Wind is more or less a given up that high. Uhm. Did we watch the same video? It's a hill, not a mountain. You can walk up hills. Definitely seems odd to put them on all sides of the hill though.
a reddit intellectual
Its low tech, but the answer is probably Goats, lots of goats.
>Why cover every side of a peak with panels? There’s bound to be some north-facing low-efficiency panels. South facing panels make the most total power, centralised around the middle of the day. East and west panels produce nearly as much power, but have peaks in the morning and afternoon. North facing panels still produce power, sure it's less but they help contribute in overcast conditions. When you have grid connected panels, spreading the solar generation out over more of the day is highly desirable. It allows you to support loads for longer, and reduce the size of any batteries needed to smooth out production vs demand. Panels are far cheaper than batteries, so spamming them on all sides is cost effective.
Strange how they didn’t ask a random Redditor to do the feasibility study and environmental impact assessment
>maintenance complexity is definitely the thing that jumps out at me. Ya but its also less skilled worker compared with maintenance on a nuclear power plant. Here you need skilled solar technicians, electricians, and horticultural staff, Nuclear means National Security involved in everything, Nuclear engineers, technicians with PHD degrees, etc. All these are higher skill and income bracket.
I’d be curious to know how much maintenance goes into a solar farm like this vs a power plant of similar output.
Didn't look like 80 km. 1 km 80 times maybe
Could be 80 squared kilometers, maybe?
9km by 9km makes much more sense, but is still fucking insane if true.
u/spacex_fanny provided a google earth link below that shows the region. The installation of panels covers various hillsides in the entire region. Not monolithically but fairly intensive coverage that stretches across about a 40 km long swath of hillsides. [https://www.google.com/maps/@34.7528444,110.6044631,15z/data=!3m1!1e3](https://www.google.com/maps/@34.7528444,110.6044631,15z/data=!3m1!1e3)
Not wanting to sound stupid or like I’m being a dick, but what’s the difference between it spanning 80km and it being 1km 80 times? I guess this is where km2 is the most useful unit to use..
I think they're saying: is it 80 km x 80km, i.e. 6400 km², or is it 1km x 80km, i.e. 80 km² There's a difference of two orders of magnitude, which is a massive difference in significance. Like you said km² would be a much better metric
No this look only 80000 meters
If they say how many panels there are you could then calculate since on average a high wattage solar panel is 1 x 2 meters.
As a massive solar energy fan I can say this.....that's hideous and a huge reasoning behind nuclear Solar should cover, BLANKET, rooftops around the world. Not hillsides
Whoever designed this has been playing too much Factorio
Hey, even I designed a nuclear setup when I realized how unfeasible solar is
Bollocks! WHat's the fun in that? I got 3RPM base with \~15GW full solar
I remember building a 80GW solar setup ... I used bots to place solar and inside every solar setup is a bot port to extend the length of how far bots reach. Just a bunch of those as blueprints
Yes I know about that strategy. I even tried it myself but the distances were getting out of hand and I would wait a lot of time before drones would carry panels to the empty space and build farms while I was waiting nervously for my energy crisis to end ... fun times :). I update this strategy thou when the spidertrons were released. Build a bunch of them and send them to location with bots and cargo. Also I generally build a modular train setup which helps with overall game speed on my setup and once my FPS drop under 50 I call it a day and stop progressing the map. 3RPM (consumed and sustained <-important aspect here meaning all science packs were consumed realtime into infinite upgrades) is the largest I've ever built.
I did the same thing with energy storage so I never had energy shortages as I'd overbuild storage to where the entire base could run on battery for multiple in-game days at a time. Was pretty damn fun.. but yea, fps drops made it a bit more difficult
Solar saves UPS though!
pfft, solar doesn't have any UPS penalty though
Still better than leveling the hill side for coal IMO. I can agree though, in already urbanized areas would be better
[Nah, green energy is the real villain. Hasn't Koch Industries astroturf campaigns made that abundantly clear yet?](https://www.google.com/search?q=mountaintop+mining&rlz=1CAGUZK_enUS998&sxsrf=AJOqlzXuLUN4SydXvsf1bZK4SLgUQxX5ig:1678302924758&source=lnms&tbm=vid&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjm_Z7Nhc39AhUlFFkFHefyDTsQ0pQJegQIAhAG&biw=1366&bih=617&dpr=1#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:7dd751d7,vid:p5RcbPZXUZo)
God damn wtf we doing.
Holy crap, I never knew about this before. And it's from a reputable source. Thanks for the vid, even though it is depressing af.
It's my understanding that they built this far from the population in the middle of nowhere and use ultra high voltage lines to take the power where it needs to go.
Let's say this is a very hot, dry area. Do you think the shaded area could have some benefit? Like perhaps keeping the soil a little more moist due to the shade or giving sun relief for plants and animals?
Testing have shown that raspberry fields with some solar panel cover have a higher yield, so probably. But depends on how close they are together. For animals, they could provide shelter in amounts somewhere between a cave and some trees, again depending on way many factors... But trees would probably be at least equally good
The plants and animals in a hot and dry climate are well suited for the hot and dry climate. Building an artificial canopy would be detrimental to the vast majority of plants adapted to that ecosystem, and the animals (as well as endemic soil microorganisms) would suffer.
As a detector of massive bullshit I can say this... you're bullshitting and your "huge reasoning behind nuclear" for something being ugly is laughable.
“I would totally swallow IAEA propaganda rather than look a solar panels in the middle of nowhere” - jdrewc
On the other hand, I think this is brilliant. The land is steep and arid making it useless for farming and industry and the south facing slopes make it cheaper to install fixed solar with good exposure.
It's almost like they had professionals doing this who accounted for the issues before they did it. I always find it hilarious when Reddit comments like the one above you who think they know a situation better than the hundreds of professionals who did the thing in the first place.
I’m an expert in a couple of things that lots of people have opinions on. I can assure you that 95% of the shit you read on reddit regarding complex systems/issues are coming from people that have no idea what they are talking about.
People are fine with destroying a landscape to build buildings, mine oil, and minerals, but the moment you put solar panels on it, people are offended, lol. Do you also get offended when you look at New York with all those hideous skyscrapers?
Are people fine with all that? Pretty sure large numbers of people are not fine with all that. Environmentalists and such.
The point is that these could be on the skyscrapers and over parking lots, we could have shade, energy and not blanket the hillsides but we can't get along well enough to do it
But here you can have one or two teams maintaining the entire setup, if it was in varying locales across a city it would be a logistical nightmare.
Also we need grid scale installations and appropriate transmission infrastructure. While we should also be doing rooftop solar, we also need large solar installs
My buddy, roof tops are already filled with stuff. You can't put much more up there many times and to be frank, the roof area is too small. It's not worth the effort.
You're assuming they're providing energy to a city center *with* skyscrapers and parking lots. Maybe they are, maybe they're not, everything needs power, not just urban cityscapes.
Amazing how China can't do ANYTHING without getting shit on
CHina bad for producing too much CO2. CHina bad for building ugly solar farms. CHina bad for investing in nuclear tech that could be weaponized. They literally can't do anything right if that's the narrative we want to push.
America always has to have an enemy to focus on. If they don't then people will start realizing it's not the Chinese who are paying you the same wages since the 80s. It's not the Chinese who are denying you sick days and maternal leave. It's not the Chinese who are treating you like dogshit while you make the fortune that others get to enjoy because they were born to rich parents and you weren't. When I was a kid it was the soviets, then it became the "terrorists", now they're trying to make the Russians that but it just doesn't stick because they keep getting shown as incompetent so I guess the Chinese it is. If Americans didn't have a foreign enemy to focus on they might just sit down and examine their lives for once and realize who it actually is who's fucking them over daily.
Fair point, well made. Probably roll that out and change the country a few times though.
I've been saying if China finds the cure for cancer, 50% of Americans would rather die than be cured.
I mean Cuba found a "cure" for lung cancer, and america banned is customers from getting it. (I put cure in quotation marks because it doesn't cure you it just slows down the disease so by the time it affects you you have already died)
WTF what dipshit downvoted this It's apparently true, for at least certain types of lung cancer https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/01/09/cuba-has-lung-cancer-vaccine-many-u-s-patients-cant-get-without-breaking-law/1019093001/
Nah, we have ivermectin already.
Shit forget to get my booster shot. See ya'll down at Farm Supply.
I would 1000× take ugly hills over climate change. Aesthetics to me can be figured out later
They should be required on the roof of every big box store. They should be used in parking lots as covered parking.
I highly agree. Perhaps a windfarm, so as to not perturb the land so much.
Imagine how many affordable tiny home humans we could power underneath those beautiful panels #🥹
Windfarms generally still require clearing the land. You have to haul massive metal fans to the site, perform routine maintenance, etc., which requires access roads. Plus, you want to avoid issues with trees and wildlife on the site that could cause premature wear and tear. They're not easy on the landscape either.
Are you sure about that? Look at the devastation of west Texas caused by all the drilling and tell me that wouldn't look better as a solar farm.
I mean, they specifically said nuclear, so…
Preach
Seems like a nightmare to maintain.
Not when you have ~~free forced Uighur labor~~ willing volunteers.
Yeah go on spread more lies.
Are you aware that's a hoax?
Just like California inmates fighting wild fires
With bountiful labor, you'd think they would spend some of it on landscaping where the panels are going. I'd expect that servicing the panels is at least marginally more requiring in expertise.
There are no moving parts In a solar panel. If the area receives enough rain to wash away occasional dust on the panel, there’s really not much maintenance to do.
Unfortunately, they wired them all up in series, so when one goes down they have to check them all.
not if they have micro-inverters. check out Enphase e.g.
That's what my array has and it's a great set up.
Damn armchair Reddit engineer smarter than China
Can’t tell if you’re joking but solar arrays are organised in strings of panels wired in series. If 1 panel went down it would only take out around 20-50 panels depending on wiring system
It is ugly, but hear me out: you could do this to a couple hundred square miles of empty Nevada desert and power most of the country. You already nuked that desert so you can't be that concerned about its ugliness!
No we'd get redditors complaining bout the view being ruined
If the US built it it's perfect. It won't erode soil, it won't affect wildlife, vegetation would cower at the thought of blocking America's energy. Rain and dust? Pshhh. Freedom will take care of it. Daft cunts act like solar panels act differently when installed in different countries. This is what a solar farm looks like everywhere.
Lmao
Shanxi is basically Nevada desert in many areas. But clean energy thing, china, bad. Clean energy thing, USA, good.
I’m not a solar expert, I’m going off of stuff I just googled so I could be wrong. I looked up what a Km of solar panels would generate per year, multiplied it by 80, and its around 44,000 gigawatts a year produced. I then took the average annual power consumption of a house in my state (it’s one of the highest) and divided 44,000 gigawatts by the average house hold and it this field would power every house in my state and still have some left over. This field barely covers a percentage of land where I live.
How do they mitigate the erosion caused by adding all that smooth nonporous surface?
Simple, no erosion in China
There is no war in Ba Sing Se.
Erode China? No China rode you.
Why would that cause erosion? The grounds still intact underneath, just had mounts going into the ground which would lower erosion
Erosion is largely a function of how much water flows across the ground and at what speed. A huge factor in designing drainage systems and preventing water erosion is the runoff coefficient of a surface, which is basically a measure of how much a surface slows down water running over it and its permeability. Lawn is has a pretty coefficient, concrete is low, and glass is even lower. If soil absorbs all the water that falls very quickly, there's no erosion. However, soil can only take in so much water at a time. The panels increase the concentration of the water falling on the soil to the edges of the panels, causing the absorption capacity of the soil along that thin line to be quickly overwhelmed. It also pummels the soil there, directly leading to erosion. Because less water is absorbed at the point of contact, more water builds up, decreasing the time it takes before water is falling on water instead of on soil, thus starting a flow. Water going downhill bumping into every little protrusion, nook, and cranny goes pretty slow and is more likely to be absorbed into the soil. Water riding on water goes fast and further reduces the opportunity the soil has to absorb the water. As the mass of unabsorbed water builds and its speed increases, it's more likely to build enough momentum to start moving soil downhill.
This guy engineers but we can't say they didn't reinforce the soil underneath the panels before placing them
Not erosion control but with much of the ground vegetation being choked off seems like that would quickly convert the surface into a surface that is markedly easier to erode. Especially on a slope
They also have the coverage to capture like 95+% of the precipitation in gutters and pipes before it reaches the earth. Maybe that's mitigating erosion?
It’s simple… the CCP simply outlawed erosion.
Reddit suddenly hates solar power cause it’s a Chinese solar farm lmao
Reddit is nothing but a bunch of bitter white neck beards lmao
What kind of wilderness are peeps seeing there, it's litteraly dry dead grass on hills that don't seem to be able to support any life so why not put the panels there
Finally, a person who knows geology. That place is the definition of a wasteland. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loess\_Plateau
Change the location in the title to Japan and watch people praising this lmao!
I was just about to write this, lol
Yep, this thread is a flawless example of how propaganda affects ‘free thinking Westerners’ just as much as any other country. China could literally cure cancer and the Americans would still get pissed over it because that’s what they’ve been taught.
It’s quite entertaining watching the hive mind criticise anything with the C, R or S word in it.
What’s the S word? Saudi Arabia? I’m assuming C is China and R is Russia.
[удалено]
China, Russia Whats the S word?
South Dakota
Sohio
Bah, you guys are way too quick to judge whenever something is done in China, this could be a positive development, maybe its not perfect, maintenance might be a bitch but I'm sure there're room for improvement.
Funny how using the wilderness for any other purpose is absolutely fine, but the second it’s done for solar power it’s suddenly a massive issue? Even when it doesn’t even cause any harm? Some people in this comment section have an agenda or are flat out stupid
China is in the title of the post, so the agenda is china bad. I'm sure if this was almost anywhere else the reaction would be the exact opposite.
Or both, you forgot the most likely option.
If this was a terraced rice farm people would be oohing and ahhing about how beautiful it is.
thing:🙂 thing, china:😡🤬🤬🤬
*China builds massive green energy infrastructure* Redditors: "BUT BUT EROSION DUST UGLY MAINTENANCE AMINALS FUCK THE CCP!1!!!" Y'all bigoted motherfuckers. This is what solar farms look like in every single country.
China could come up with a cure for all types of cancer and some of you clowns would still find a way to shit all over it..
if china cured cancer, the nyt and washington post would run pieces about the suffering oncologists who are now struggling to find new jobs.
[удалено]
[China's curing cancer faster and cheaper than anywhere else. But some worry they may be going too fast.](https://twitter.com/Quicktake/status/1218695856553189377)
Good for them. I hope we see more of this
Nightmare to maintain, huh? Other forms of power generation don't have operating costs? Do people think you build a nuclear or coal plant and it just runs itself? https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/06/03/pv-plants-lasting-longer-with-lower-operational-costs/ "The OpEx expense decline is driven by a 'precipitous' decline in recent years in operations and maintenance (O&M) costs, to '$5-8/kWDC per year in many cases'" (this survey is of US utility scale PV, OpEx in China is probably as low or lower since it is a leader in clean energy tech). https://www.statista.com/statistics/184754/cost-of-nuclear-electricity-production-in-the-us-since-2000/ Nuclear power OpEx for comparison. You could easily fly drones over the solar farm to find panels that need maintenance (probably how they got those aerial shots).
China does something genuinely impressive and redditors just bitch about the way it looks. lol
People will really do anything to avoid nuclear energy huh
You realize they built the most nuclear reactors as well right? China leads on most energy categories by a fuckton. They burn the most coal, build the most renewables, and build the most nuclear lmao.
China? China bad, solar bad, burn more fossil fuels.
Ah, the natural beauty and splendor of... a solar farm. Edit: Fuck sake, people, it was a joke.
Fly over the mountains of the Pacific Northwest USA, and look down on the countless square miles of ~~forest~~ tree farms. Your eyes tell you that it's a rich environment filled with animals and birds. Reality on the ground is that beneath the trees, there's virtually *nothing*. It's a tree plantation, like corn stalks but made of douglas fir. Maybe soar over the desert southwest and look down on the ~~untouched~~ desert scenery criss-crossed with motorcycle and ATV tracks - former natural areas stripped of their native plants and deeply rutted by gas-powered toys. Look down on Florida from an airplane and regale yourself with thousands of square miles of tightly packed houses with boat docks alongside canals that were created to drain the great swamplands that were once one of Earth's greatest ecosystems. Now it's just lawns and shrubbery connected by roads and drainage canals that double as boating venues. Grab yourself some Bitcoin while you're at it, part of the cryptocurrency boom that consumes more electricity than entire countries (Australia and Argentina to name two,) A third of world electric generation is done with coal, another 22% with natural gas - both spewing CO2 into the atmosphere and warming *everything*. It's all right there in front of us. Solar farms have no monopoly on human environmental devastation.
thanks for adding perspective
One of my neighbors moved out and a new one moved in and they tore out 3 Joshua trees in their backyard and got fined like 30k for each one. Apparently no one but the city/state government can move them even if they fall. A lot of times the fallen ones have new “roads” made around them because no one wants to call the city to have them moved.
You should see the quarrys they painted green and hung plastic plant mesh from
They have to be installed somewhere.
On top of buildings would be better
They probably do that, too. We also do both in the US.
Would you prefer an open pit coal mine?
Lithium mine preferably
Bruh dont be a pussy: #Cobalt mine
Ah yes. I too want to dig as an "artisional" miner.
If it saves even twice as much land from having to be destroyed…worth it!
Better than oil fields
Doing big things… like America the old days.
You could have this too, tax free and the government will pay for it, if you live in.
The scale of public works in China is mind boggling. It’s one of very few examples where a centrally planned economy can produce a positive outcome.
The Chinese.....go BIG or go home
It would be so cool if the US could attempt to do any one of these Chinese Mega projects, from solar cells on mountain tops, to mega hydroelectric dams, to high speed rail. Super impressed with China's technological achievements. No so much impressed with the CCP and their surveillance state. That being said, I'm embarrassed for the US, its lack of mega projects, the fascists that have infiltrated their governments and it's spying program on all Americans.
Almost any mega project in the US would fail all sorts of environmental regulations
This will somehow be bad because it’s chinese
This comment section urgently needs a waaambulance, but sadly, they're all tied up in ohio. But they're right, America should just continue fracking,the landscape will look so much more beautiful.
Redditeers think gray dirt hills r beautiful and anything China does is evil seemingly
Hey armchair reddit conservatives: tell me again how solar farms are beyond human engineering capabilities, not beneficial, impossibly grid destabilizing, etc.?
All countries need to take note!
Wow that will work for 10 years!
[удалено]