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Comment by SPICLK2 | Hacker News Reader

I find the idea of blanketing mountainous wilderness in relatively short-lived e-waste just awful. Surely there are much better terrains for solar panels?

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Modern solar panels last around 30 years, so I wouldn't exactly call it "short-lived".

Economically, I'm sure the locations chosen were optimal. You'd imagine that actual mountainous wilderness would be a much more expensive terrain to blanket with solar panels, compared to flat areas. If there were other choices, economically they'd better options.

Given the vast amount of flat, well-lit terrain within the borders of China, it should be clear that the pictured projects (and the other "blanket a mountain in solar panels" projects that are easily discoverable) are not about the economics of power generation.

At least it's better than sending peasants into the mountains and building solar panels on the flat field that has been growing crops for thousands of years.

Bring back those big beautiful chimeys, burning their beautiful coal and blanketing us in the warm glorious embrace of soot and fly ash.

In this particular case I believe the mountain is largely karst (limestone) and the panels substantially reduced erosion -- particularly of soil -- leading to an increase in fauna that thrive in the shade.

As others have said, it's hardly waste, it's an installation with a 30-year lifespan.

Still much better and lower impact than whatever the fuck we'd been doing for the past 200 years

Yes let us wait for an optimal aesthetic solution for another 50 years while we choke on our own fumes. Plenty of time to rearrange the deck chairs.

China already has one (if we're insisting on solar power generation) - 700,000 sq. mi of desert.

It's also not just aesthetic - flat terrain is just so much more practical.

> flat terrain is just so much more practical.

Outside of peak summer it's much more optimal to have a south facing slope actually.

Additionally, solar panels can become too hot and that reduces their efficiency. Also, deserts are famously known for dust. Since it rarely rains, you get a dust buildup, further compromising solar efficiency in deserts.

I'm not saying that deserts are a bad place for solar. What I'm trying to say is - it's often worse than people think and it requires special infrastructure.

I love how they’re just building and building, adding more and more capacity and people here are arguing whether it’s in the right location. It’s laughable.

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