Comment on Cooperativism and green energy
Antitoxic9087@slrpnk.net 1 year ago
What surprised me was how little solar had been in Portugal and Spain. Most renewable growth had been wind. But that has been drastically changing in very recent years. This is a good thing in terms of citizen participation and cooperative ownerships, since solar is the easiest technology for ordinary people to possess and fully control. In terms of tech level, unless compared with diy small hydro or wind turbine, it is also the simplest among all the options.
schmorpel@slrpnk.net 1 year ago
I like that Portugal finally starts to use energy that makes sense for its climate, but I’ve also seen the growth of solar and am not too sure I like the common way it’s being done: buy the cheapest of lands in rural areas, and then plaster it with panels at 100% density. It looks awful, the whole landscape turns into a desert. So my approach would be to space the panels out more and use the shade they produce as shade for certain plants. I’ve seen both high density solar and artificial shade on blueberry plants constructed within the same town last year. I see herds suffering in full sun and workers with machines clean beneath panels. It’s a bit insane and I will definitely inquire why that happens and how it could be changed.
If small-scale turbines for wind or hydro existed as a more normalized concept, you’d probably be able to repair them at your local tractor workshop. Solar panels can’t really be repaired. I really wish we could get some people to produce more small scale hydro and wind, and that to become a thing.