"Not only are landowners getting green energy, but they also are getting big financial gains. The amount of money farmers will get for their land is significantly more than what they would get from either leasing it or farming it themselves, Welker said. "
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laws such as carb are coming quickly to California though there are some exemptions for 1000 mile per year vehicle’s used for farm use. As far as diesel and gasoline vehicles that’s another story Governor Newsom Announces California Will Phase Out Gasoline-Powered Cars & Drastically Reduce Demand for Fossil Fuel in California’s Fight Against Climate Change | California Governor
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California is going to help famers with incentives. Farmers with full time tractor usage do not really need incentives the breakeven period is around 3 years when I looked it up once. But the insentives will encourage early adopters that will get the vendor stable income.
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Just ran across this in the Washington Post (rooftops)
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And there delicious.
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A client of mine has many solar panels out in a field that feeds their house, or would, except every one of them is now dysfunctional after about a decade. They were made by Panasonic, which went out of business, according to the client but the buyer is honoring the warrantee which still covers the panels. They will replace the panels but not provide the labor to install the new panels, and the client cannot find technicians willing to do the work because they make most of their profit from the sale of panels.
Somehow that doesn’t add up, but I just thought I’d repeat what the man said. How difficult can they be to install? And even if a trained technician is required, why wouldn’t they do the work minus the price they have to pay for the panels?
At any rate, those broken panels will now go to a landfill where they won’t be up to any good.
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Alan, I’m perplexed by what you are describing. Panasonic definitely still makes solar panels, I’ll be installing some of them next week at a water treatment system to open and close valves off grid. I feel that another component of the system has likely gone bad, possibly the inverter or some other part of the system. Sometimes inverters only have a life of 10 years (or less!) if they are lower quality. The one I have is only warranted for 15 (solaredge) and it is top of the line. Stuff does wear out, but I would be willing to bet it’s not the actual panels in this case. It sounds like an experienced electrician should be brought on for a second opinion to test things out.
Speaking from experience, if all that needs done IS actually replacing the panels, that can probably be done in a few hours by an experienced crew of a few people.
As far as recycling goes, that industry is getting there. Solar Panel Recycling: How it Works and Why it's Important | EnergySage
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Thanks for the info. I was only repeating what I remember hearing.
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No problem! I’m no expert but I’d hate for your client to tear everything down and replace the panels just to find out another part was the problem. I bet an electrician could easily test the charge produced by each set of panels (or individually) to figure out if one in particular is bad, check inverter function etc.
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This is how the connectors work with photos MC4 Male/Female Solar Panel Cable Connectors | HQST Solar
The problem is literally Noone knows anything about them in the immediate area in some cases. Solar panels are actually not that difficult to install, rather the initial design on paper is difficult. I don’t actually feel that many panels would simultaneously go out unless there was something like lightning involved. @disc4tw said it well its more likely an inverter would go so nothing else would work. There is no way to know until a solar installer determines the problem.
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There panels likely used the MC3 suction connector not the current MC4 which is why they all died from arching. Disconnecting them from the frame is nothing. The MC4 connectors connect by hand but need a tools to disconnect them. The connectors daisy chain from panel to panel. You can do all that their self till the end of the string where it needs to transition to the invertor.
It might be safe to assume that each panel comes with cabled long enough to reach the next panel if mounted adjacent. When you have to cross and raps or go to diffrent rows you need custom cables. Installers make the cables on the spot but you can buy at 10x the cost premade cables.
It does get a little more complicated if you have optimizers or microinverters. just means more custom cables.
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Here’s a 10 year assessment for those interested.
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The car industry has been testing this since the 80’s. With today’s technology what a rooftop panel can generate in 8 hours is enough to supplement what the car generates by braking on a typical commute.
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Many large solar installations on farms across the U.S. are failing because they are not adjacent to regional electric transmission lines and the local utility is understandably unwilling to pay for upgraded lines.
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Yes putting this technology where it is needed and where it is convenient are two different challenges. Changing the grid will be necessary for long term energy goals.
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I think this is the biggest problem with EV. I could not agree with you more.
I feel (using that line of thought) that EV will never displace combustion engines outright until this is the case. The batteries don’t need to go 500 miles. If I could swap them out every 100-200 miles with a bolt and swap it would work great. Faster than filling up a 20 gallon tank with fuel. Move the emphasis to high voltage (gas) battery stations than at home charging. I am thinking more along the line of a propane tank. Buy and swap. The filling (charging) and pressure check (hold a charge check) not done by the consumer. Rapid charge stations to every home would be too expensive so the infrastructure could START by converting current gas station with high voltage power upgrades. Then the bad batteries would be taken out of service and repaired before returning to use. It could even be subsidized to replace/repair failed bat packs. Then the DOT could require all EV on us roads use the same swappable battery. Then car manufactures work together to improve batteries rather than making them competitive trade secrets BS going on right now.
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There are many ways to do it, I agree the convenience of your route would be nice, but expensive because the “stations” would have to house, charge, and maintain hundreds of batteries.
We have discussed EV related topics like this extensively in the lounge, check it out when you get there.
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1 out of 10 cars worldwide last year where EV’s. There is one existing battery swap brand NIO and its basically a blip on the worldwide numbers. Home charging no brainer, for single family homes. However, you want to do the math the cost to install is a wash after 2-3 years of gas savings. Faster for when there are multiple EV’s.
Wawa is just one of the gas stations convivence store companies deploying chargers. Wawa’s reaches 100 EV charging stores with its Upper Macungie site – Lehigh Valley Press (lvpnews.com). Wawa without a doubt takes advantage of any state or local grants to fund their deployment but to wawa’s credit they do not limit their deployments to only subsided chargers. case, any Tesla chargers are unlikely to be subsidized under current regulations and Wawa deploys plenty.
Mom and Pop stations on the other hand are dead.
Fossil Vehicle Bans Are Likely to Hit Mom-&-Pop Gas Stations the Hardest - CleanTechnica
As someone who literally lived in my family service shops and gas stations during hard times growing up. My advice is to sell out sooner rather than later. The business model is done. They only profit on the garage and concessions and nicotine. EV’s service needs are radically different and unprofitable. If you need a 15-minute charge you most likely to spend it at a Wawa with lots of options, then a dinky mom and pop shop. Plenty of 7-11 and quickstops exist without gas stations. Adding chargers would give them the best of both worlds.
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