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Comment by dotancohen | Hacker News Reader

I just did an installation on my roof. We have very high winds in my area, so I went with a provider that already did a few dozen roofs in my area. I was surprised to see that the frames are not bolted to the roof, rather, they are bolted to concrete blocks which sit on pads on the roof. Each 300W solar panel feels like it weighs no more than 5 kilograms, the bolted aluminium frames look very easy to scale inexpensively. There are no trenches, rather, DC conduits run the length of the panels. I confidently hang out with my 7 year old under the solar panels for a good half hour.

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> We have very high winds in my area

Here's a point that worries me slightly. With climate change comes more turbulent weather, and increased winds everywhere. Surely the first casualties of a gale or hurricane are panels. The bigger the area, the more vulnerable the installation.

Oddly enough, existing standards take weather extremes into account.

Nice concern troll.

> concern troll

That's a little rude and uncalled for isn't it?

It was a little rude, certainly.

Whether uncalled-for or not depends on your intent. Only you are in a position to know for sure. My own feeling was that the comment was mostly deserved.

Objections and problems raised against proposed solutions to critical issues, just left for someone else to solve feels disingenuous. Whether not it actually is.

Maybe, next time try to solve your own objections and we won't get the drama.

It does seem strangely rude.

It struck me as rude. But I also understand that too much time on HN (in particular) and I can get a little put off by some of the cynicism I see in the comments.

Is the cynicism concern trolling? I'm not sure. Certainly there are people "with agendas" that would toss cynical remarks into a discussion thread like they were thought-grenades.

But the more erudite leanings of HN also attracts a kind of skepticism from people who want to post as naysayers because it suggests they have already perceived the issue, saw its failings, and have moved on ... intellectually.

I hate to even post the above because I'm pointing too many fingers and don't wish to put anyone on the defensive. (There are other reasons I am sure someone would post a contrarian comment.) I wanted to explain though why I don't immediately jump to "concern troll" when I see a negative comment put forth on a story about a very progressive idea.

It is rude to troll. Solar panels have been going up on roofs for probably longer than you have been alive. Do you post "concerns" about weather for every single other thing mentioned that is outside? Wind turbines? Cars?

> Surely the first casualties of a gale or hurricane are panels.

Actually, windmills.

Seriously, I asked my electrical inspector why there are so few domestic-y scale windmills in my part of New Mexico, where for several months a year we have raging wind every day. "Nobody builds one that can last more than a year or so out here".

The panels, on the other hand, are just fine.

Nearby, in windy and desolate Colorado, SunEdison has three big arrays, each with a different mounting technology:

1) fixed-tilt, seasonally-adjustable, flat-panel PV

2) single-axis-tracking, flat-panel PV

3) dual-axis-tracking, concentrator photovoltaics

> fixed-tilt, seasonally-adjustable, flat-panel PV

What is adjusted for the season? The angle of the panels? I would imagine that one would have to be very close to the equator for this to be worthwhile.

You can retilt those two, three, or four times per year.

Tilting for summer achieves maybe 70% of the power of an automated tracker. In the winter it’s much closer. I suspect in snowy places that the extra weight could overload the automated mechanism. In winter, tracking and fixed achieve nearly the same.

If you were retilting for summer at 25 degrees latitude, you’d tilt slightly away from the equator.

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