www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65626371
Better than covering fields with panels.
|
A friend from France 'phoned yesterday and was telling me that the Le Clerc supermarket in Souillac had covered the whole of the car park with solar panels. The car park is enormous so goodness knows how much it has cost. Good for shoppers as cars will now be in the shade.
I used to shop there when I had my holiday home in France and could take my dog in the supermarket in their "chariot pour animaux." Far too hot to leave him in the vcar.
|
|
A good idea, but I have no problem with putting them in fields either. Nor with wind turbines in remote countryside or in the sea.
|
|
Putting panels on fields can reduce the amount of food grown in the country, food security being an important issue. We do need to think carefully before putting lots of them on the best farm land. Fewer issues with putting them in car parks.
|
>> Putting panels on fields can reduce the amount of food grown in the country, food
>> security being an important issue. We do need to think carefully before putting lots of
>> them on the best farm land. Fewer issues with putting them in car parks.
Car parks and of course mandating their use on new builds unless demonstrably not worthwhile would be good for sure.
Where they're in fields it would be interesting to know what they've displaced. Locally they're on places that haven't grown a crop for years. Whether that's down to the economics of beans, grains or oilseed I could not say.
To what extent are they permanent. If we were on a wartime footing how does food security count on the matrix compared with imported gas being displaced from the power supply.
Is it possible to have rough grazing animals like sheep around the array?
Not saying you're wrong Sooty, just thinking aloud.
|
...passed the Renault (Kangoo) factory at Maubeuge today. Much of the end product seems to be stored in the open under a vast array of solar panels.
It's fairly common to see sheep grazing under solar farms (or at least, I've seen much of it)
|
I think they're a nice, clean, tidy design and I've been thinking about a carport for a while so that's a good place to have them. I detest those ugly after-thoughts stuck on people's roofs.
I'm curious how much lecky you'd get from a carport-sized solar panel. Enough to run a big fridge-freezer, iMac, screen and laptop? They're all switched on during the day.
|
I've got some ugly after-thoughts on my modest sized semi detached roof, 14 old fashioned old tech panels. They are prettier and more efficient these days but mine do fine for me. It's maybe 30% large than a fair sized carport.
Over the past week they have generated 86.2 kWh. Over a randomly selected week in Jan they made 12.9. In one of the better weeks last August they made 114.6.
During that last week above I took 22.3kWh from the grid. Last week it was 122.6 (but I charged the car a few times). Over the Jan week I took 117kWh.
During the winter week I had 5 half hours where I didn't import from the grid. In the August period I had 126. Last week just 11, but lots of near-nothing.
Through the night, i.e. at tickover, my house uses about 0.14 kWh every 30 minutes. That is the freezer, fridge freezer, fridge, and various electronics which stay on 24 x 7.
|
Cheers, Smokie, that's fascinating - proper facts and figures that I can relate to.
The article in the o.p. says '2,000 panels could power hundreds of homes'. Two hundred homes? Twelve hundred homes? Fact-free and meaningless, especially when they shove in the word 'could'.
Last edited by: BiggerBadderDave on Tue 23 May 23 at 17:14
|
|
With some car drivers having a proven inability to avoid other cars in a supermarket car park, how are they going to manage avoiding the supports for the solar panels?
|
>> With some car drivers having a proven inability to avoid other cars in a supermarket
>> car park, how are they going to manage avoiding the supports for the solar panels?
Our local Sainsburys' car park has an upper deck which is supported by steel columns between spaces in the lower deck. Same at Kettering Hospital and numerous railway stations.
They have witness marks for the odd scrape but nothing serious.
Not rocket science to protect SP supports.
|
> Car parks and of course mandating their use on new builds unless demonstrably not worthwhile
>> would be good for sure.
>>
Governments have shyed away from mandatory panels on new homes. Probably due to trying to keep houses within reach of FTB? Or possibly in the too difficult pile.
>> Where they're in fields it would be interesting to know what they've displaced. Locally they're
>> on places that haven't grown a crop for years. Whether that's down to the economics
>> of beans, grains or oilseed I could not say.
In the main panel farms in the east of England, so norfolk, Suffolk and Lincolnshire its mainly on productive arable land . Some of it grade 1. Have a look at the next big SP farms being planned, they'll be in the 0.5-1gw size. That's a fair bit of land.
>> To what extent are they permanent. If we were on a wartime footing how does
>> food security count on the matrix compared with imported gas being displaced from the power
>> supply.
About 30 years i think. Yes it's a tricky one, balancing food with energy supplies. Why i think warehouse, car parks, office blocks are far better to put SP farms. Far fewer downsides, main one would be complexity of planning them in lots of small badges.
>> Is it possible to have rough grazing animals like sheep around the array?
You can but not particularly practical mainly down to the distance between arable farms and sheep farms.
|
I knew it would not take long for the predictable torrent of reasons why it won't or can't work.
Also worth noting that vertical farms (they do exist) have a product yield 10 to 20 times that of conventional farming at ground level.
Like other intensive farming (chickens etc) I find the concept slightly unnatural but an inevitable consequence of overpopulation and the pursuit of profit!
|
Here's a few basic facts about solar farms I've just culled from less than 10 minutes research.
Solar panels currently occupy 0.1% of farmland, and the target is 0.3% (694km2).
Golf courses take 1256 km2 and airports 493km2. (Wish I knew how to superscript! :-) )
Housing and warehousing are growing more quickly and taking more space than solar farms.
Solar farms help farmers diversify. And it is reversible so land can be returned to farming at some future point of required. And it can be used for certain crops, and sheep grazing.
Solar farming helps food security by relieving some of the climate change burden.
EDIT: one more, quite topical - they help to increase energy security by reducing our reliance on imported fossil fuels
Last edited by: smokie on Tue 23 May 23 at 20:19
|
>>
>> Golf courses take 1256 km2 and airports 493km2. (Wish I knew how to superscript!). :-)
>>
..wot, like this? ;-)
|
Thanks, now I know 22222
Cos I can edit your post :-)
|
|
... thought you'd get that....
|
|
Like i said its a balancing act, i think if we can keep the best farmland and build SP farms then that's the best solution.
|
Where they're in fields it would be interesting to know what they've displaced. Locally they're
>> on places that haven't grown a crop for years. Whether that's down to the economics
>> of beans, grains or oilseed I could not say.
>
Quick look online suggests this is the biggest one in planning, if not can't be far off the biggest ones.
www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-64225179
|
Coming to a car park near you ? solar panels. - Robbie34
