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0 pointsbryanlarsen3y ago0 comments

Without Hot Air and this blog are polar opposites. Without Hot Air uses costs from 2008 and assumes that they won't improve.

The costs of solar have reduced by 90% since 2008 so McKay's conclusions are horribly wrong.

OTOH Casey Handler is betting his company that the costs will improve from current values.

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maerF0x03y ago

While the cost of the hardware has, many factors still apply such as efficiency and thusly the total area of solar required.

You're right though that the book is not up to date, and getting long in the tooth in some aspects.

bryanlarsenOP3y ago

Efficiency has almost doubled since 2008 but more importantly efficiency at non optimal angles has improved even more. Put together he's off by about an order of magnitude in the amount of land required.

The other factor that is missed is that solar panels are proving to be surprisingly non exclusive in their land usage.

locallost3y ago

People doubting there is enough land to be used for solar panels should check how much land is used for parking lots.

maerF0x03y ago

Efficiency may have doubled, but the book used a very optimistic 30% efficiency, which afaik is still quite a bit higher than even current rates.

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0 pointsbryanlarsen3y ago0 comments

Without Hot Air and this blog are polar opposites. Without Hot Air uses costs from 2008 and assumes that they won't improve.

The costs of solar have reduced by 90% since 2008 so McKay's conclusions are horribly wrong.

OTOH Casey Handler is betting his company that the costs will improve from current values.

0 comments

maerF0x03y ago

While the cost of the hardware has, many factors still apply such as efficiency and thusly the total area of solar required.

You're right though that the book is not up to date, and getting long in the tooth in some aspects.

bryanlarsenOP3y ago

The other factor that is missed is that solar panels are proving to be surprisingly non exclusive in their land usage.

locallost3y ago

People doubting there is enough land to be used for solar panels should check how much land is used for parking lots.

maerF0x03y ago

Efficiency may have doubled, but the book used a very optimistic 30% efficiency, which afaik is still quite a bit higher than even current rates.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse