I wanted to park my bikes - or depending on the Season - my Renault Twizy somewhat protected and easy accessible.

After adjusting the yard fence to form a pocket I put a frame aluminium profiles on top. On top of that is a second frame which is angled at 10 degrees and on that are the solar panels.

10 degrees seem to be a viable compromise between self cleaning, sun capture, construction height and openings to the elements on the side.

!Image: Frontal view on solar bikeshed

It was much more challenging than i thought to find solar modules with a form factor fitting the shed.

4 Standard modules where far to big. So I choose two modern 410 kWp modules and 3 130 kWp “camping” modules.

I got two 600 W dyne (“Bosswerk”) Micro-inverters cheap, because everybody want’s 800 W now and they have a regulatory issue with a missing relay.

!Twizy Micro EV parking in solar Bikeshed

The 130 kWp panels are cabled serially but still seem to have issues getting enough voltage to start the inverter in the morning.

!two Micro Inverters below 5 Solar Modules

I’m happy with the project. Things in the shed are getting much less wet during rain und not baking hot during sunshine.

I might close the gaps between the panels obe day but that is low priority- the thing was never meant to be totally watertight.

I also like it being some kind of Solarpunk landmark in our street.

I feel this is a bit disingenuous. Especially as Michelin are working on airless tires. We all know that tires as we know them have planned obsolescence as a fundamental part of their design. They're already a blight on our environment, the only good thing to do now is to ensure that as few new tires are needed as possible, not for them to be green washed.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/261388

> - China’s energy regulator said it will limit “low-end” solar panel manufacturing after industry leaders called for more government intervention earlier this month. The move is an acknowledgement by Beijing that solar panel overcapacity is a problem, one that has pushed Chinese solar firms into a price war and shriveled returns. > - The competition in China’s solar power industry is “indeed very fierce,” an official at the National Energy Administration (NEA) said at a press conference Thursday. > - A price war on solar panels in China has meant that big firms have rapidly lost profit while small firms risk bankruptcy. > - Historically, the industry has been propped up by city governments, which build solar panel factories to lease or sell to private firms. But while some local authorities have expressed willingness to continue to keep solar firms afloat, “that support may dry up as the provinces are themselves swimming in debt, largely stemming from the country’s property crisis, and solar has to compete for their support with other green tech sectors, like electric vehicles, that are also struggling with overcapacity. > - Chinese officials want homeowners to install solar panels to combat overcapacity, but China’s grid is still not able to accommodate fluctuating solar energy levels. > - One solution may be virtual power plants: smaller-scale grids that rely on local renewable energy infrastructure and incentivize homeowners to use that energy during peak times with cash payments. But beyond building a new grid meant to handle renewable energy, China also needs “improved coordination” from Beijing to enable solar-heavy provinces to trade energy with solar-weak provinces. > - China’s energy regulator is also pushing for more spot trading — where prices will fluctuate with supply and demand — rather than fixed rates, encouraging customers to use energy during low-demand periods.

A friend worked on that subject and I found it pretty cool:

Animals often hide, flee or avoid sources of human noise. But to what extent? Which species do it more? What noises disturbs the most? They made a camera + speaker device triggered by animal presence and observed their reaction.

Interestingly what animals tend to fear the most is the sound of humans chatting. They probably recognize other animals in human voices, but vehicle sounds seem to confuse them more, though still triggers vigilance reactions.

A simple mix of two cheap salts, Sodium Sulfate and Table Salt (Sodium Chloride) dissolved in boiling water can create a really useful Phase Change Material that has a melting point of 18c (65f) which allows it to be recharged back into it's cooling state simply by putting it in a basement and can then be used as a cooling blanket, back rest, neck pillow, etc to help keep you cool in hot weather. Longer lasting and less energy intensive to charge than an ice-pack.

In the video he talks about the potential for using a similar higher temp PCM behind solar panels to reduce efficiency loss or damage from over heating. It could also be a really interesting thing to use for transporting heat from where it's unwanted to where it's needed.

Summary

> Sure, here is a summary of the video A New Innovation in Hot Water Storage | Heat Geek Mini Store: The video discusses the Heat Geek Mini Store, a new innovation in hot water storage designed for homes with heat pumps. Heat pumps are a more efficient way to heat homes than traditional boilers, but they require hot water storage tanks that can be difficult to fit in many homes. The Heat Geek Mini Store is a much smaller hot water storage tank than traditional models. It can be smaller because it heats the water to a higher temperature, allowing it to store more hot water in a smaller space. The video also includes tips on getting the most out of the Heat Geek Mini Store, such as installing air rators to hot water outlets to conserve water and setting the immersion heater to 38°C (100°F) as a boost function if the heat pump is not keeping up with demand. Overall, the Heat Geek Mini Store is a promising new innovation that could help to make heat pumps a more viable option for more homes.

I've never jumped on the hydrogen bandwagon. I know it's technically renewable, but I feel hydrogen is a stop-gap resource.

cross-posted from: https://floss.social/users/be4foss/statuses/112638603664718053

> MacBook Air owner? > > MacBook Air owner? > > 2018/2019 models are losing #Apple support. > > https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/06/the-case-for-and-against-macos-15-sequoia-being-the-final-release-for-intel-macs/ > > \#OptGreen with #GNU/#Linux to keep your device in use! These machines will run beautifully for many years to come. > > Not only wallet friendly, #upcycling keeps CO2 emissions out of the atmosphere. Ca. 75% of Apple's emissions comes from production alone (details in alt text). > > Sustainable, independent #FreeSoftware: Better for users, best for the #environment. > > @kde > > \#KDE #KDEEco #FOSS #OpenSource #MacBook

This is exciting right? If we can turn skyscrapers into massive power generators, that's huge!

I hate that I have to post this, but it's worth discussing.

cross-posted from: https://lazysoci.al/post/14570630

> Well done Germany

Alternative Invidious Link

Summary: > According to the video, a new discovery by MIT researchers could revolutionize our understanding of evaporation and have a major impact on desalination, weather prediction, and even climate change. The traditional understanding of evaporation is that heat from the sun heats up water molecules, causing them to move faster and eventually escape as vapor. However, MIT researchers have discovered a new phenomenon called the photomolecular effect, which shows that light can directly cause water to evaporate without heating it. This process is much more efficient and can potentially evaporate four times more water than heat alone.

This could be revolutionary for desalination.

I guess the conversation I would like to have is, are we ready? Do you think we have had advancements withheld and held back and is the economy more important than the planet? Personally I feel like everything comes back to monetary wealth getting in the way of global happiness. Star Trek really got that right.

Ignore the fact that Tesla are involved. I'm quite excited for this era of energy storage that we're entering.

I'm not sure if any of you are/were anime fans, but do you Vash Stampede and Trigun? There were a bunch of giant sand batteries in there, that always stuck in my head.

Obviously, things didn't work out great for them, but a clean future requires clean storage and clean generation and the first step is storage for everyone.

I have a 100 W rigid solar panel including a charge controller that I currently only use for camping to charge batteries (also useful in an emergency at home). It strikes me as a waste that I could be generating more clean energy with equipment that I already have, but I don't have anything in mind to use this energy for.

Obviously I could try to tie it into my home to run more of my household on solar, or buy more/bigger batteries to charge, but with 100 W of generation, it's probably not worth it without a significantly increased investment.

I tried searching around online, and I found plenty of discussion for what to do with a whole house that generates excess capacity (mainly sell to the grid), but nothing really on what to do with small scale DC generation.

Anyone here have thoughts?

I can't remember if I saw the argument here or on Reddit, but this is my preferred platform so it's going here.

Summary of argument: a user should have been using water for their thermal battery, not sand, because water has better heat capacity (4.18 joules per unit of mass person unit heat - 4.18/gK). Sand's thermal capacity is significantly lower (0.835J/gK).

Looking at these numbers alone in the post I understood why someone would say that; it also made me question why so much research is being done on sand batteries. The user who argued against sand batteries missed a crucial factor: material density. Water has a density of 1000kg per m^3. Dry sand (regular not pure quartz sand) has a density of 1730 kg per m^3. I found no satisfactry response to the argument in that thread, but that thread is now lost to me. I have also been curious about how much better regular sand is for heat batteries than water.

When designing large batteries, the goal is usually energy per volume. Let's compare 1m^3 of each (roughly 3.3ft cube) and how much heat it can hold before the next state change (which matters a lot when managing the pressure from steam).

Total stored energy = mass (g) * thermal capacity (J/gK) * heat (kelvin).

Water: 1,000,000 * 4.18 * 373.15 = 1,559,767,000J Sand: 1,730,000 * 0.835 * 1996.15 = 2,883,538,482.5J

Over 1 billion more joules per m^3. I hope this makes it clearer why sand batteries are such an area of interest lately. It certainly did to me.

Disclaimer: I am not an expert, so there may be mistakes. All the numbers and relevant equations were found on the internet.