Comment by SEJeff | Hacker News Reader

Comment by SEJeff | Hacker News Reader

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This is where stationary storage (via batteries) makes a lot more sense. In Australia, the same problem exists, but they have an giant ozone hole so even more UV hits the surface. Tesla deployed what (at the time) was the biggest battery storage project in the world. They built a 100MW/129MWh battery setup with their Powerpacks. In another part of Australia, they're deploying a "virtual power plant" by equipping up to 50,000 homes with individual home battery backups via Tesla's Powerwall product. The grid operator will be able to tap into each of these batteries to redirect power to the grid or shift load off of the grid whenever they see necessary. This is resulting in massively improved prices for electricity in South Australia where they had a lot of rolling blackouts (due to the heat) last summer.

The newly released Tesla Megapack https://www.tesla.com/megapack seems like a slam dunk for this sort of thing. You store that crazy amount of sunshine that is excess in batteries and use them that evening or the following morning. The economics of this approach are becoming more and more realistic due to better technology and better manufacturing.

The problem in urban Texas is that all the asphalt and concrete acts as a stationary heat battery. Counteracting that is a huge part of the problem.

They could use batteries and air conditioning to do so, but it's likely the return on investment would be higher figuring out how to provide more shade even in non residential areas.

It's a shame we can't convert that heat to electricity in some efficient way.

PV solar roadways are a total bust, but I do wonder about liquid loops under the asphalt. If you need a source of cold to create a temperature gradient vs the road, you could always pull from geothermal next to the roadway collector.

Oh we can convert high grade heat to electricity with amazing efficiency. Problem is, this is super low-grade (low temperature) heat. Darn you, thermodynamics.

Provide shade by putting up solar panels above the roads.

I‘m imagining that Texas has far wider roads than Europe. Would it be possible to plant street trees or other tall native vegetation to provide shade?

Houston does just that. Streets in Houston are lined with live oak, providing shade to much of the street.

Have you been outside the loop? There is no culture of shade protection in Texas the way there is in other not places like Australia or mideast. Massive concrete car parks with no shade structures in sight. No solar panels on the roofs of big box stores. It's pathetic.

Would it make sense to mix some TiO2 or other whiteners into the asphalt and concrete to increase their albedo?

Edit: Looks like LA is doing something like that https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/climate-weather/blogs/how-...

Does Australia really have a giant ozone hole? It doesn't seem so according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology[1]. Also see [2].

[1] http://www.bom.gov.au/uv/faq.shtml

[2] https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2016/06/30/australia-never...

I don't think [2] sounds like a reliable source. It presents a "hole" as a binary thing, which didn't extend to Australia. But even over Antarctica, it was a level of depletion, not literally a hole. There may be a point to be made about the numbers, but the whole article seems to be predicated on the assumption that either there is a hole or there isn't without defining it.

Actually, what makes even more sense, is to have a non-conversion storage.. aka.. just pre-freeze a large amount of coolant at solar peak and store that for the next day.

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