Comment on Solar panels for surveillance but none for affordable power
plantfanatic@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Infrastructure?
It’s a self contained unit, the battery is in the unit, not elsewhere, and it actually saves tearing up roads to run power to these units.
EggInDisguise@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
Legit it’s sinking a single pole into the ground that only needs line of sight to the thing it’s keeping an eye on. Total maybe 3sqft of space taken up.
It’s the cheapest option that has the most freedom of placement.
As opposed to solar farms which require vast plots of land, power substations to make the power usable by the grid, and a lot more upkeep.
Gee, I WONDER why so many of them have gone up instead of solar farms…
Fuck flock and the government but this was a dumb attempt at a gotcha that just doesn’t make sense if you think about if for more than 5 seconds.
plantfanatic@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Conversely though, there is ways to use the same tech to provide cheaper “infrastructure” as well though.
My city they use them to provide lighted crosswalks and flashing stops signs where they are less noticeable. So to have Flock and NOT those, there’s some axes to grind.
NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Makes you wonder how much could we alleviate strain on the grid by upgrading existing things like this that can be self contained.
plantfanatic@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
I’m a little on the fence, I live where it’s cold and the batteries are a common fail point, plus long nights need larger batteries and more panels to charge them too. So depending on how important it is, it should probably be hooked up to the grid as well. A little redundancy, but a properly integrated system could provide to the grid when there’s extra (long summer days and short nights) and take when it’s needed (long winter nights.)
leftOverLife@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
Exactly, if the climate is friendly to it, there could be a lot more energy independent infrastructure besides stop signs, crosswalks, and mass surveillance and control mechanisms.
s1ndr0m3@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
We already have vast plots of land being taken up by parking lots and buildings. There is a hospital in my area that put solar panels over the parking lot. It is really nice. Your car interior stays cooler. Many buildings have their AC cooling fans on the roof. Solar panels would also shade those and help make them more efficient. All of these areas already have a hookup to the grid. Substation may need to be modified but it isn’t as dramatic as you make it sound. Also everything has upkeep costs, including oil refineries and power plants.
EggInDisguise@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
So you’re saying we have big areas that are already being used for something else that would need to be at least partially demolished in order to accommodate the infrastructure?
… Something that is way more difficult than popping a pole in the ground.
Look, I am 100% for renewables and have about 500W of panels for small things at home, I am not saying “don’t do everything possible to distribute power over as many places that can be retrofitted as possible” I’m saying the OP meme is a bad comparison.
Rooftop solar, parking lot solar, balconies with solar panels bolted on, bring on the distributed power grid. Bare minimum every country engaging in warfare should WANT solar everywhere since it makes it MUCH harder for anyone to attack power production facilities and take down important and significant portions of the grid. That alone makes their power grid much more secure, if not “under government control”.
I’d love to have a hybrid wind/solar setup, I live next to some fields and forest, andon top of a hill. So I get plenty of wind all year round and on the far end of the driveway I have a bit area for solar panels with great LOS for the sun from about 10am until sunset. I just don’t have the money.
So yeah, I’m all for sinking our tax dollars into a solar revolution (especially when considering what the country ACTUALLY spends money on) but the meme is a bad meme making a false equivalence.
plantfanatic@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Hrmm, this got me thinking a little actually. Where I am, there isn’t much wind, but other provinces do, we were mainly coal and LPG powered, still are. But solar is on the upswing, our city has multiple massive solar farms.
Anyways, what got me thinking is why we don’t have wind as well, I’m wondering if just due to the almost daily wind spikes being on the east side of the Rockies? How often would the be locked out would make them unfeasible?
Maybe there’s some study on it I can dig up later.
gandalf_der_13te@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
yeah but check the economics. climbing on roofs to install 3 m² of solar panels is just not worth it. the total cost of the system is not just the cost of solar panels + land area, but rather solar panels + land area + installation workers cost. and installation work costs significantly more on a roof than on a flat plain area, which is why the plain land is cheaper overall.
NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
People seem to underestimate the scale of utility level solar installations and the space they need, and the economies of scale you get with it.
Like absolutely when it makes sense cover a parking lot, put it on roofs etc, but if you can access a field with the right conditions it’ll be more cost effective.
You also left off things like permitting. You can permit 1 big field, or dozens / hundreds of parking lots. One field will be easier.
Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Also, solar farms ARE going up.
There’s about 1,000x as much solar capacity going up every quarter in the US as there is total solar capacity on all flock cameras combined.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 3 weeks ago
i wouldnt be surprised if flock is being partially subsidized by the govt. who else has the most gain, leo, politicians, palantir.