Solar Energy Growing SKY High

>>8000451
It can't deliver consistent levels of power. Nuclear is the only way.

>>8000490
lol the sun is nuclear u retard

>>8000451
Only about 20 years. Climate change is a non issue

>>8000495
LOL way to not respond to the point, dumbass.

>>8000490
not to mention solar panels are extremely expensive and the resources used to produce them are scarce

i'd put more money into developing fusion reactors and making our current fission reactors safer and cleaner

>>8000451
>How short of time will it be before solar energy takes over?

Never. Once they stop subsidizing it because of it's shitty efficiency and the Chinese mine out all their rare earth metals, solar will be finished.

>>8000502
>not to mention solar panels are extremely expensive

thats not true at all. large scale solar is on par with coal in terms of $/kWh. its only rooftop residential and commercial thats expensive.

>>8000502
Why not just research how to develop cheaper panels then?

That's what I wanted to do when I was a naive highschooler who thought he could build something useful.

>>8000514
>large scale solar is on par with coal in terms of $/kWh.

Because of government subsidies and chinks flooding the markets with cheap panels.

solar panels are getting more efficient, but solar is still not economically viable in the free market. Realistically, this would have to change, either by advances in the industry or by rising costs of other forms of energy.
Also, bear in mind that the solar industry itself is dependent on other energy sources

>>8000529
>chinks flooding the markets with cheap panels.
yeah, nah m8. even thermal solar has caught up to coal in terms of $/kWh.

>>8000525
>Why not just research how to develop cheaper panels then?

we can make cheap panels, but we'd need to use some lead, and that freaks people out.

>>8000503
Not that there is any chance that we run out of rare earth elements, as they'll always be available given the right price, but there is very interesting research going on that involves extracting rare earth metals from the byproducts of coal mining. Supposedly it'd be economical to mine coal just to extract rare earth metals from it.

>>8000525
i'd love to, and maybe that's where i'll end up eventually

who knows. in the mean time i'd rather see fusion come along more

Why we don't use both solar and nuclear?

>>8000600
nuclear is expensive as fuck and requires a good infrastructure. third worlders can use solar panels.

>>8000611
That doesn't mean that superpowers cannot use nuclear. Also, that is not completely true for many types of fission reaction. Also, which countries do you think require most energy?

How about we use something that is a renewable resource so that we don't have to rely on other countries for the resources?

Regarding solar, the cost is not just the panels. Gotta find an inexpensive way to store the energy cos we need to use electricity at night too.