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Comment by foobarian | Hacker News Reader

I've seen a lot of solar panel installations around Massachusetts highways. It seems they got put up on otherwise unused open areas around the roads, such as clearings between the shoulder and the woods, or the area inside the clover leaf ramps. [1]

[1] https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3127663,-71.3832247,557m/dat...

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We have seen this in many places in Japan - otherwise unused spaces around railway corridors, factories even seafront now host solar panel installations.

Also you can see it when going to Narita with Skyliner over the old unused shinkansen corridor - Skyliner fits in just about a half of the corridor & the rest is solar panels: https://www.google.com/maps/search/narita/@35.7981082,140.10...

That is a much better use of space, although I'm concerned that any shiny object near a roadway needs to be carefully aimed not to blind drivers (there is a certain gold-windowed building on 95/128 that comes to mind...)

I do recall seeing more parking lots being fitted with a solar roof, and vehicle charging below...this probably should be the primary use of panels, shading otherwise blacktop parking lots

> I'm concerned that any shiny object near a roadway needs to be carefully aimed not to blind drivers

We seem to deal with driving near the ocean and other bodies of water just fine.

Not to mention other cars have a lot of shiny surfaces too.

Yes, but curved, not a large flat reflector. Huge difference

Big difference between a large flat reflector 20 feet away, and a uneven ocean surface, likely atleast 100 ft away...

That said, at the right angle, no, its not just fine, the ocean reflects alot of sun, just like anything else.

About aiming… solar panels want to be installed normal to the sun which means any reflection is going to go back toward the sun. Of course the sun moves around but the reflections are mostly sunward. You’d probably have to have panels in a steep valley to reflect back toward a road.

Solar Panels North of lat 42 is like building a dam on a local stream.. it does something, but not worth the cost!

Germany would disagree

The energy prices they pay would agree.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/418078/electricity-price...

https://www.statista.com/statistics/418087/electricity-price...

Why 42° specifically? Is it related to the current cost and efficiency?

Its a thumb rule of sort!

https://globalsolaratlas.info/

The red area in the map is the most productive part for Solar and Orange is partially good.

Solar is very geographically dependent, also high altitude is good, that is why Tibet/Colorado is in dark red. Precipitation is a problem for Solar, that is why Florida is OK but not great place for it.

How about lat 57? http://aberdeensolar.com/

I live in the bay area atmospheric river and I still get a ton of juice out of my solar panels. I definitely have down seasons and the local laws with respect to off-grid power are frustrating, but I don't regret it.

You might say, "You have not recouped the cost." This is difficult to measure; my home has power during power outages. We have them regularly around here. What is the price on having uninterrupted power in your home when no one else can deliver it? Surely quite high, by comparison, no?

I have always had very reliable electricity just from the grid. The value of additional reliability would be almost neglible for me.

Well, I'm glad things have gone your way.

Sorry I missed "We have them regularly around here." I kinda thought you were protecting against something that rarely happened for peace of mind.

I'm doing nicely out of my panels at 56N, but that's mostly subsidy. It's also extremely seasonal.

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