The Growth of Solar Capacity In California, Capacity Utilization, and Solar Energy Production.

[NNadir]

3. Thanks for the bean counting, but...

...the reality is that your unreliable systems are expensive for all future generations.

The main reason doesn't have to do whether you personally make money; rather it has to do with the entire damned planet, which, in case you haven't noticed, is on fire.

You may think I'm a naïve fool, who hasn't spent more than 4 decades hearing this nonsense, but I assure you I am not.

First of all, and most importantly, if your rental properties catch fire because the solar energy fantasy has failed, dramatically and obviously and spectacularly to address climate change, your 40 year warranty won't mean shit.

I spent part of my evening last night reading about stress fractures in silicon. You?

Try some of these papers:

Strain dependent effect on power degradation of CIGS thin film solar cell (Solar Energy 195 (2020) 121–128)

Corrosion growth of solar cells in modules after 15 years of operation (Solar Energy 205 (2020) 409–431)

Modelling and experimental investigations of microcracks in crystalline silicon photovoltaics: A review (Renewable Energy 145 (2020) 2387-2408)

There are thousands, upon thousands, upon thousands of such papers published every year, on the topic of LCA, "Life cycle analysis."

But one doesn't have to give a shit about the scientific literature to see where the solar fantasy has got us: I've been hearing this crap for half a century, and was once stupid enough to take it seriously. The fact is - and facts matter - that 50 years of people telling me about how much money they make with their trivial little future electronic waste on the roofs has still left us with a planet where the concentration of dangerous fossil fuel waste carbon dioxide hit 420 ppm, less than ten years after it first hit 400 ppm.

As for "juice at night," rather than wave your hands with wishful thinking, it might do to look at actual data which is available in real time here: The CAISO Demand Page. As of this writing, one can read that the electricity demand peak in California on July 28, 2021, was at 17:54 PDT (5:54 PM PDT), 41,280 MW, when the solar output of the entire state of California was producing 7,616 MW and falling by 100 MW every 5 minutes. At this minute, solar is producing 480 MW of power, while demand is 39,360 MW, more than 6000 MW higher than it was when solar peaked today at 11:25 at 12,163 MW.

Right now California is producing 24,335 MW of electricity by burning dangerous natural gas and dumping the waste directly into the planetary atmosphere, where is accumulating at rate that should disturb anyone who gives a rat's ass about humanity.

If one doesn't give a rat's ass, they can tell us all about their solar subsidies.

If electricity becomes worthless at noon during the summer solstice, this will impact the O&M costs of the necessary gas plants and reduce their economic viability. That cost won't fall on people collecting subsidies for rich people. It will be a subsidy paid by poor people, and maybe people who are tenants.

Unless you are aware of the energy to mass ratio of solar junk, you are merely assuming that it is non-toxic, which effectively is simply hand waving, and frankly, wrong.

Solar junk will all be electronic waste, already an intractable problem, involving not tens of thousands of tons, but millions upon millions of tons of distributed garbage, because the energy to mass ratio of electronic cells is extremely, extremely, extremely poor.

I am really, really, really, really tired of people complaining about uranium mining, since it is very clear to anyone paying attention, that the uranium already mined, plus the thorium dumped in lanthanide mines for so called "renewable energy" which despite half a century of cheering has failed to address climate change, is sufficient to power all of the world's energy demand for centuries, without a single fucking energy mine running anywhere. The energy density of plutonium is over 80 trillion joules per kg.

The failure of all this solar and wind junk to prevent the use of dangerous fossil fuels is responsible for about 6 to 7 million deaths per year:

Here is the most recent full report from the Global Burden of Disease Report, a survey of all causes of death and disability from environmental and lifestyle risks: Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks, 1990–2015: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015 (Lancet 2016; 388: 1659–724) One can easily locate in this open sourced document compiled by an international consortium of medical and scientific professionals how many people die from causes related to air pollution, particulates, ozone, etc.

Why don't you look through this comprehensive document and tell me about all the people who died from uranium.

Anyone, and I do mean anyone who complains about mining while worshipping so called "renewable energy" is simply the equivalent of a Republican stating "blue lives matter" while beating the shit out of cops with a flagpole on the steps of the US Capitol.

The solar industry is not sustainable if for no other reason, it's dependence on vast amounts of metals and the requirement for redundancy, requiring two systems to do that one reliable system can do.

I find these little anecdotal bourgeois "my solar system is wonderful" accounts to be tiresome, and frankly rather oblivious. We have vast fires all around the planet, major bodies of water drying up, people dying in the streets from heat exhaustion, the collapse of major ecosystems, and you want to tell me about your solar cell warranty?

Thanks, but no thanks.

I'm paying attention, and have nothing more to say to anyone who isn't.

This is not about your bank account. It's about humanity.