#Concept-Crafted-Creations #video about #manufacturing the #solar-energy collector based on the James Webb Space Telescope with 18 mirrors costing US$5 each. Explains that the JWST uses gold so it can do better infrared imaging. He made some small concentrating mirrors by letting heated plexiglas discs sag into a mold made with #3D-printing, which seems like an interesting technique for #optics in its own right, though possibly not imaging optics. Rather than for the final solar concentrator, this was used for a goofy invalid experiment to compare “silver” and “gold” which were represented by colored spray paint, and the “#energy” gathered was measured by some unknown kind of light sensor #electronics. For his big collector, he used not just 3-D printing but also #laser-cutting on wood and assembly with screws. He also used a laser-cut alt-azimuth wood base with a giant gear for #solar tracking. He explains the three-point screw-and-compression-spring mounting that makes each of the 18 mirrors alignable, using TPU accordions for the compression springs; the mirrors themselves are laser-cut plexiglas with reflective window film stuck to it. He was hoping to sag these plexiglas hexagons into a mold in the same way as for the small test mirrors, but his microwave oven (which must be what he used for the others) damaged the window film, so he ended up heating them to only 100° or 120° and clamping them into a mold (with a laser-cut custom clamp) instead of just letting them sag under their own weight. His aluminum collector plate with coolant grooves running through it cost him US$171 for #PCBWay to custom-machine, making this a very expensive solar collector, though he thinks it’s cheap. Also he’s in the Netherlands, where it’s cloudy a lot, especially in winter. Comments mention that blackening copper with liver of sulfur makes a good solar-collector material.
on 02026-08-15#Ember on #USA #photovoltaic #solar-energy #energy compared to coal, gas, etc. #Solar finally nosed up over coal in May: 45.5TWh vs. 44.1TWh, which I guess is 61.2GW vs. 59.3GW. But nuclear is still at 63.5TWh/month and gas is at 132TWh/month. Wind is also 41TWh.
on 02026-06-11#news: #photovoltaic #solar-energy “supplied 12.8% of [#USA] electricity in May even as #Trump boosts coal over clean #energy”, while coal was only 12.2% (and probably insignificant outside of electricity). Nice (minimally related stock) photo of #sheep grazing under #solar panels in Saltillo, Texas. “#Seia and Wood Mackenzie said solar and battery storage were practically the only energy resources being built in the first quarter, making up 91% of all new generating capacity [presumably in the US].” Sourced from #Ember but without a proper citation. #energy
on 02026-06-11God damn it, docs.nrel.gov no longer exists. But in 02018 utility-scale #solar system costs were US$2.27/W for 500kW to 5MW systems. Cites PVinsights for global module prices dropping from US$0.31/W to US$0.22/W in 02018. Great plot of "PV value chain spot pricing" from 02007 to 02018, and says “global solar investments” were US$132B in 02018, two-thirds in large-scale PV, 26% in small-scale solar. #Trump #USA #energy #politics #censorship #PDF #energy #solar-energy
on 02026-05-3029-second #video below and above a floating #solar-energy farm in #China. #solar #energy
on 02026-05-05converting 3.2% of #corn alcohol fuel production land in the #USA to #solar farms would supply the same #energy as all of corn alcohol fuel production in the USA. #solar-energy
on 02026-04-22#news #video: in "solar grazing" the beasts keep the grass from growing up over your #solar panels; focused on third-generation shepherd Dan Finnegan in southeastern Massachusetts, whose company is Solar Shepherd, LLC <https://solarshepherd.com/>, grazing that day on a solar farm owned by National Grid. He has 100 “acres” of solar farms under management as pastures. Unlike cows, #sheep fit underneath solar panels on many utility-scale solar farms, and they’re an alternative to “five or eight guys ... running weed whackers under solar panels”. #solar-energy #energy
on 02026-04-22“A harmonized dataset of ground-mounted #solar-energy in the [#USA] with enhanced metadata” #solar #datasets
on 02026-04-22“christoph” reports installing 9.2kW(p) of rooftop #solar 5 weeks ago in southeast England. #Pricing was £17k, which works out to £1.85/Wp (US$2.49/Wp). #solar-energy #energy
on 02026-04-22100Wp #solar panel for sale for US delivery, #pricing US$37.21, free shipping, and a US$4 “coupon” discount, 33¢/Wp. #solar-energy #energy
on 02026-04-22#SEIA #solar map of #USA #solar-energy state by state, including manufacturing facilities, etc. #energy
on 02026-04-22#Hyperspace-Pirate #video on #manufacturing a #jugaad #cooling setup with phase-change thermal #energy-storage in a bucket of ice with copper-tube heat exchange loops in it, one for a water and ethylene glycol coolant and one for an R600 vapor compression refrigeration loop. #solar #energy #solar-energy
on 02026-04-14#news from 02024: “Albania, Bhutan, Nepal, #Paraguay, Iceland, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo produced more than 99.7 per cent of the electricity they consumed using geothermal, hydro, #solar or #wind power.” In 02022 I think. #solar-energy #energy
on 02026-04-12#solar #PV module #pricing is up sharply from November’s record low €0.050/Wp for low-cost and €0.105/Wp for mainstream modules to €0.065 and €0.120 respectively. #energy #solar-energy
on 02026-04-11#solar resource map and some #capacity-factor data for the #USA. #solar-energy #energy
on 02026-04-11#photovoltaic #capacity-factor dataviz using Tableau. #energy #USA #solar-energy
on 02026-04-11From the discussion of Tom Brown’s #solar-energy calculations, ronb1964: “I build off-grid camper vans for a living and install solar + lithium battery systems regularly. The technology has matured a lot in the last few years. What used to take a massive roof array and a bank of heavy lead-acid or AGM #batteries to run basic appliances now fits in a fraction of the space with lithium.” morphle gives #pricing: “15kWh 48V LFP battery around $1800 with low quality battery management system in metal box on wheels. Car batteries need more expensive inverters if you want to fast charge them (150kW-950kW) and super fast discharge them while driving fast (>100 kW). (...) The Mercedes eSprinter 56kW van costs around $80000 new but we sell 3 year old vans like this for $4000 without battery. So refurbished and converted to eCamper with 1800 mile range you pay $6700.” #vanlife #energy
on 02026-04-09#solar-energy #datasets from the Danish Energy Agency Technology Database. I didn’t know GitHub rendered #CSV.
on 02026-04-09Tom Brown’s “Solar and #batteries can power the world”. He summarizes, “Solar and batteries are cheap enough that most people can get most of their electricity from them, and save money. This equation gets better and better over time as their costs decline,” and more specifically, “solar and batteries can supply 90% of electricity for 80% of the world’s population at less than 80 €/MWh (including a fuel backup) with 2030 assumptions.” He doesn’t rely on wind, but does include it. He thinks stored fuel is the solution to Dunkelflauten. Based on “the Danish Energy Agency Technology Database for 2030 in 2020 euros: solar PV installed cost 384 €/kWp, lithium-ion battery installed cost 157 €/kWh.” Open code and data. He’s summing up his computations for “the 9196 1° by 1° pixels that contains more than 10,000 people, which is enough to include 99.86% of the population,” using capacity factors for wind and solar per pixel, though I’m not sure where his pixels are from. He assumes no demand response (conservative) and no seasonality (overoptimistic). #pricing #solar-energy #energy
on 02026-04-09“Powering #Australia with #nuclear-energy would cost roughly twice as much as renewables, CSIRO report shows” #news #solar-energy #energy
on 02026-04-08persuasive #video about #energy #futurism (mostly #solar-energy) and #economics, ending up in a fiery anti-#Trump #politics diatribe
on 02026-03-14