Comment on Arizona's solar-over-canal project will tackle its major drought issue
badbytes@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Or we could put effort towards limitations of fossil fuels and fix it long term. Maybe both, but if we don’t do former, only duct tape.
Cethin@lemmy.zip 10 months ago
Luckily this does both, to some extent. It’s not as far as we need, but solar offsets dirty energy usage.
ikidd@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I don’t understand how it “offsets”. If someone pisses in the pool and I do it behind a tree, that somehow gets rid of piss molecules in the pool?
PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee 10 months ago
Doesn’t Arizona get most of its energy from the giant nuclear power plant near Phoenix?
Cethin@lemmy.zip 10 months ago
Well they’re part of a larger grid. Any clean energy on the grid will be cheaper than dirty, so will be sold to offset dirty even if Arizona was 100% clean.
Perkele@lemmy.whynotdrs.org 10 months ago
My guess is that producing solar panels uses tons of fosil fuels. And they’re pretty much used up after 10-20 years and needs to be replaced and the old ones ends up in a landfill.
Fur_Fox_Sheikh@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
It takes energy to produce them, sure, but it’s way less than even just the production needs for coal or natural gas. Not to mention that’s a one time carbon cost (per lifespan which is close to 30 years these days) vs ongoing emissions. And additionally, as the energy mix where the panels are produced cleans up, the carbon footprint of the panels go down as well! Is it the perfect solution? No, but there is no silver bullet to get off fossil fuels. Solar is just one part of that transition and it is exciting to see more groups exploring the solar/shade synergy (there’s some cool shaded farming solar experiments going on that also make use of the solar panel’s shadow for additional benefits!)