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0 pointssandworm1019y ago0 comments

Oil competes with solar wherever a diesel generator powers something that might be powered by solar, and there are a lot of diesel generators out there. Oil also competes with oil for home heating in many areas (electricity v. oil).

In my world, my parent's new retirement castle is powered by an off-grid solar/diesel system. Solar isn't putting up much of a fight (Canada+winter+mountains = maybe 2hours of direct sunlight on panels).

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4 comments · 2 top-level

codecamper9y ago· 1 in thread

I think if you guys did the math, you'd find that some cheap chinese solar panels + a battery would be way cheaper than running a generator.

(For the battery: a tesla powerwall 2 if you can get one, or sort of build your own from LifePo4 batteries & an http://electrodacus.com/ controller)

Have a look at electrodacus. He lives in Canada. Powered 100% by solar. He even plans to heat with solar, but that requires a specially built house.

sandworm101OP9y ago

But good luck running a half-dozen saws on a construction site during a canadian winter. Not every diesel generator senario has the time/space/light for a solad rig.

toomuchtodo9y ago· 1 in thread

Very little electrical generation, at least in the US, is from petroleum of any sort (less than 1%).

http://www.npr.org/2015/09/10/319535020/coal-gas-nuclear-hyd...

EDIT: We have far more coal and natural gas fired generation to displace than off grid petroleum generation.

sandworm101OP9y ago

Lol, read my first comment re grids. There is plenty of power out there not on grids. And 5+ percent of carbon emissions come from ships, which are tricky for solar and are certainly not tied to grids. And aircraft ... apples and oranges.

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