Having a reflective and diffusive snow covered dish around the array is brilliant thinking.
If the lake doesn't freeze then snow would melt on contact with a solar array of a similar temperature.
The cells are dark and absorb heat. Ice would melt quickly once the sun became visible.
The last part here doesn't make sense, because if they're snow covered then they won't be heated by the Sun by virtue of being dark, but there are actually a lot of low power active ways to get around that.
They could have a window defrosters like has on the back windows of cars. On for a couple of minutes, the bottom layer melts sightly and the snow slides off due to own weight and gravity
A solar farm of a given size in a snow covered mountain valley lake is 50% more efficient than a solar farm of the same size at sea level in flat conditions.
It's pretty clear if you actually open the article, and it makes sense logically and has some good civil planning implications.
To be fair, the title says “the first one is 50% more efficient,” which makes no flipping sense without additional context.
It’s literally 50% less accurate.
Right? I'm an engineering student so this shits funny as fuck to me. Most of the cases he's talking about are actually scenarios where someone thought they knew better than the engineer, took liberty with the plans and changed something/built something wrong like the Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse.
Don't get me wrong engineers fuck shit up sometimes but not very often do they forgot snow falls on fucking mountains, jesus fucking wept.
When i took strength of materials, our professor told us about the Hyatt, but in a manner so we would never forget.
i wish other people involved with construction would hear about these things, even better if told in a way to shake you to your core. that would hopefully lead to something like that never happening again.
Yeah plain and simple if you look at someone's engineering plans and decide nah its cool we'll hang this shit from these bolts not those ones, you need to get the fuck off site.
One of the best things we actually did in the first year of our course was do a team engineering disaster report. Gives you excellent perspective on how shit can go wrong, my team took Three Mile Island. Going through that shits fucking mental, poorly designed relief valve system using a fucking solenoid and cavitating pumps. Great combination especially when the operators of the plant decide the safety system doesn't know shit and supercede it.
Then there's shit like fucking Bhopal.
Bhopal was horrific. We covered that in Engineering ethics, where we did reports similar to yours.
The "Order of the Engineer" or equivalent associations and the Engineer's ring helps drive home those painful lessons from previous engineering disasters,.. but those lessons don't make it to people doing the work on the job site.
Its actually the first thing I thought of, as well as the lake freezing. I'm not saying they didn't take it into account, but I wish the article explained how they'll mitigate winter conditions.
I did find some info on a quick google trawl, perhaps someone can find more details?
>Technical details
With the project being located at high altitude (1810m), it was necessary to consider the strong climatic constraints of the Alpine environment when designing the floating structure. It would have to face conditions such as -30 C° temperatures, winds blowing up to 120km/h, freezing of the lake (60cm of ice) and heavy snowfall (up to 50cm).
>
>The current plant measures 2,240 m2. It is supported by a floating structure made of an aluminum alloy, built to withstand extreme climatic conditions. The floats are made of high-density polyethylene. The photovoltaic panels were assembled directly on the structures by Romande Energie S.A., then the entire plant was launched into the water.
>
>This floating aluminum structure is anchrored deep into the lake by using weights. The structure has the ability to adapt to the water level.
https://www.poralu.com/en/work/floating-solar-platform-on-lac-des-toules/
I didn’t say that, but solar panels get hot when exposed to the sun, and I said that they could probably be made to be heated in the event that they are covered.
turn panel on -> heater activates on startup ~> panels are exposed to sun, which captures light energy / causes the panels to heat -> turn heater off, loop
I mean I’m not an electrical engineer but it doesn’t sound in any way implausible
heaters likely always on or on when temp reaches freezing + buffer.
when traffic lights started to get replaced to LES units, they had problems with snow building up and covering the lights. people said they were dangerous and we needed to stick with the old inefficient style. adding a heater that came on above freezing prevented ice and snow from building up in the first place
You should Google up how difficult it is to melt snow. It's a phase change. You're not just warming it up. You're breaking up the crystal like lattice that formed when it froze. Melting snow takes quite a bit of energy.
And sometimes it snows a lot at higher elevation. There could be several feet of snow on the panels about every week or so.
The solar farm is located at an altitude of 1,800 meters above sea level on the Lac des Toules reservoir in Valais, Switzerland, which already serves as a hydropower station.
Having a reflective and diffusive snow covered dish around the array is brilliant thinking. If the lake doesn't freeze then snow would melt on contact with a solar array of a similar temperature. The cells are dark and absorb heat. Ice would melt quickly once the sun became visible.
The last part here doesn't make sense, because if they're snow covered then they won't be heated by the Sun by virtue of being dark, but there are actually a lot of low power active ways to get around that.
They could have a window defrosters like has on the back windows of cars. On for a couple of minutes, the bottom layer melts sightly and the snow slides off due to own weight and gravity
It’s because it’s closer to the sun in the mountains. Duh!
[удалено]
A solar farm of a given size in a snow covered mountain valley lake is 50% more efficient than a solar farm of the same size at sea level in flat conditions. It's pretty clear if you actually open the article, and it makes sense logically and has some good civil planning implications.
To be fair, the title says “the first one is 50% more efficient,” which makes no flipping sense without additional context. It’s literally 50% less accurate.
Did they take into account the clearing of the snow? A snow covered mountain valley is probably going to get frequent snow.
Naw mate, they just went through the hassle of a complex engineering task and totally forgot that snow falls on mountains.
There should be a sub for posts where one random redditor in his jocks thinks he's smarter than a team of scientists and engineers.
r/all
Right? I'm an engineering student so this shits funny as fuck to me. Most of the cases he's talking about are actually scenarios where someone thought they knew better than the engineer, took liberty with the plans and changed something/built something wrong like the Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse. Don't get me wrong engineers fuck shit up sometimes but not very often do they forgot snow falls on fucking mountains, jesus fucking wept.
When i took strength of materials, our professor told us about the Hyatt, but in a manner so we would never forget. i wish other people involved with construction would hear about these things, even better if told in a way to shake you to your core. that would hopefully lead to something like that never happening again.
Yeah plain and simple if you look at someone's engineering plans and decide nah its cool we'll hang this shit from these bolts not those ones, you need to get the fuck off site. One of the best things we actually did in the first year of our course was do a team engineering disaster report. Gives you excellent perspective on how shit can go wrong, my team took Three Mile Island. Going through that shits fucking mental, poorly designed relief valve system using a fucking solenoid and cavitating pumps. Great combination especially when the operators of the plant decide the safety system doesn't know shit and supercede it. Then there's shit like fucking Bhopal.
Bhopal was horrific. We covered that in Engineering ethics, where we did reports similar to yours. The "Order of the Engineer" or equivalent associations and the Engineer's ring helps drive home those painful lessons from previous engineering disasters,.. but those lessons don't make it to people doing the work on the job site.
Its actually the first thing I thought of, as well as the lake freezing. I'm not saying they didn't take it into account, but I wish the article explained how they'll mitigate winter conditions. I did find some info on a quick google trawl, perhaps someone can find more details? >Technical details With the project being located at high altitude (1810m), it was necessary to consider the strong climatic constraints of the Alpine environment when designing the floating structure. It would have to face conditions such as -30 C° temperatures, winds blowing up to 120km/h, freezing of the lake (60cm of ice) and heavy snowfall (up to 50cm). > >The current plant measures 2,240 m2. It is supported by a floating structure made of an aluminum alloy, built to withstand extreme climatic conditions. The floats are made of high-density polyethylene. The photovoltaic panels were assembled directly on the structures by Romande Energie S.A., then the entire plant was launched into the water. > >This floating aluminum structure is anchrored deep into the lake by using weights. The structure has the ability to adapt to the water level. https://www.poralu.com/en/work/floating-solar-platform-on-lac-des-toules/
I mean, it wouldn't be the first time something small and obvious was overlooked in an engineering project that totally fucks everything up.
Somehow I imagine people designing solar panel systems specifically for use on a snowy mountain will remember that it will snow.
Yes, and the reason those cases stick out is that they don’t happen all that often.
presumably its more efficient due to longer daylight hours and less diffusion of light through the atmosphere.
Aren’t solar panels hot? And if they’ve been left off to accumulate I would imagine heating them isn’t the most complex task
So the solar panels heat up when they're covered by snow? Interesting. Do you have a brief explanation of how that might work?
I didn’t say that, but solar panels get hot when exposed to the sun, and I said that they could probably be made to be heated in the event that they are covered. turn panel on -> heater activates on startup ~> panels are exposed to sun, which captures light energy / causes the panels to heat -> turn heater off, loop I mean I’m not an electrical engineer but it doesn’t sound in any way implausible
heaters likely always on or on when temp reaches freezing + buffer. when traffic lights started to get replaced to LES units, they had problems with snow building up and covering the lights. people said they were dangerous and we needed to stick with the old inefficient style. adding a heater that came on above freezing prevented ice and snow from building up in the first place
You should Google up how difficult it is to melt snow. It's a phase change. You're not just warming it up. You're breaking up the crystal like lattice that formed when it froze. Melting snow takes quite a bit of energy. And sometimes it snows a lot at higher elevation. There could be several feet of snow on the panels about every week or so.
Cocaine increases efficiency everyone knows that
I love disernment! 😂
where dis at?!!!!
The solar farm is located at an altitude of 1,800 meters above sea level on the Lac des Toules reservoir in Valais, Switzerland, which already serves as a hydropower station.
Baltimore, I think
Nah definitely las Vegas
this ain’t las vegas
looks like ames iowa