PC/WI: USA goes all out for Solar Power?


Solar panels are not the only method to generate power from solar energy.

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OP mentioned the building of these things in the Southwest. They need staff. Very well-educated staff.

And besides, even with the normal solar panels, you still need to design and build them. Assuming this begins around the early days of the environmental movement and a president like Carter is able to start the ball rolling and avoid it stopping, eventually this federal funding is going to develop an entire industry based around renewables and high-technology. Silicon Valley starts sooner and becomes even bigger than it is now.
 
Solar panels are not the only method to generate power from solar energy.

article-0-0C627CF400000578-958_964x548.jpg


OP mentioned the building of these things in the Southwest. They need staff. Very well-educated staff.

And besides, even with the normal solar panels, you still need to design and build them. Assuming this begins around the early days of the environmental movement and a president like Carter is able to start the ball rolling and avoid it stopping, eventually this federal funding is going to develop an entire industry based around renewables and high-technology. Silicon Valley starts sooner and becomes even bigger than it is now.

Yep, I'm onto it now.

Are this mirror farms any good? I see PV all over the place on roofs but I think we only have one mirror farm in the whole state after over a decade of pushing solar.

I think having your own solar panels might appeal to that American love of personal independence, generating your own power!
 
ground source heat exchange for your home heating needs, solar panels with inverter and battery storage for your home electrical needs

and if you dont have the security of being on-grid for those rare occurences when you're pulling the juice then you have a small diesel generator as a backup feed into the batteries
 
ground source heat exchange for your home heating needs, solar panels with inverter and battery storage for your home electrical needs

and if you dont have the security of being on-grid for those rare occurences when you're pulling the juice then you have a small diesel generator as a backup feed into the batteries

Off grid is very rare here, mostly when the price of connecting to the grid out in the country is too expensive, so when the power goes out people with solar have no power. Officially anyway; now FITs are not very appealing people are fitting their grid connected solar setups with some battery storage for when the power goes out or to stretch the power they generate when they're at work and don't use it. I imagine a similar evolution would occur in the US, the grid is pretty handy so you might as well use it while its useful even if it does leave you in the lurch every now and then. Of course if the grid in your area is prone to failure then solar setups would reflect that.
 

Driftless

Donor
I don't understand? What solar infrastructure and armies of graduates? Aren't we talking about putting solar panels on the roofs of houses and an inverter to hook them into the grid along the wire that send power to the house?

When the sun is shining the panels power the house or send power up the power line into the grid, when it's dark the house draws its power from the grid like everyone else. Its the job of an electrician or roofer, not a rocket surgeon, Jimmy Carter installed them on the white House all the way back in 1979.

In my area(rural Wisconsin), you got an interesting mix of early adopters of alternative power: the "greens", farmers, and the doomsday folks. Historically, it's been an eclectic combo of passive solar water heating, active solar electrical generation, wind turbines, geothermal, and methane from brewing by-products or decomposing cow manure.

Those early adopters in the farm community often designed and built their own gear. The size of the farm and it's manure output plays a role in how high-tech the process is - the bigger the farm, the bigger and more technical the digester may be.

Nowdays, for individual residences, you can by smaller solar panels or wind turbines at the local Menards home improvement center and self-install.
 
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