>>1657101>The absolute BEST solar panels are around 22% efficientAnd diesel engines can easily reach 50% efficiency.
ZOMG SOLAR PANELS BTFO!!!!
Just shut up if you're this stupid. Diesel engins don't fucking run on the sun, they run on diesel which cost money.
I know people who have a wind turbine on their farmland. It's about 2MW power, meaning that's about 80euro per hour (0.04 per kWh) when it's running on full load.
Because it's at an effective location it had run 3 months non-stop at full load during autumn (so they told me)
That means that that turbine made over 150keuro in just 3 months. Not bad for a machine that would probably cost 2-3 millions.
There's a reason why there weren't many coal-power plants built (I think zero) during the trump administration.
Despite their reputation, renewables are simply the cheapest solution.
For example in Saudi Arabia solar power is 0.015 euro/kWh. In Spain it's between 0.02 and 0.03 euro/kWh. Coal power is 0.04-0.12.
Clearly, solar power will be installed, because it's more cost-effective.
A side effect of all the extra installed solar power is that coal/nuclear power stations will be running at full capacity for smaller parts of the time, which makes them even more expensive to run.
Of course, battery technology is not yet good enough. Not much research has been done on the type of batteries that you'd like for storing power overnight. (weight is not an issue, so lithium would not be required). Sodium-ion batteries are promising and don't require so many rare materials. But research is only just starting, since the societal need for this technology is only just ramping up now.
It takes some time for the people in power that the economic reality has shift: solar power is now the cheapest and cheap (stationary) power storage is required. We can expect much better static batteries. It will just take time, there hasn't been much research done for batteries that are: cheap, durable, high-capacity, heavy and bulky.
