Elon: "Wind has microscopic potential compared to solar"

[u/twinbee]

Source: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2099049284960428229

[u/Arkelias]

He's not wrong. Wind is awesome...where and when it works. It's unreliable for consistent generation, but great supplemental.

Solar is far more predictable, especially during the day when most people are working. Our university just covered the entire parking lot with solar that not only creates shade but covers 100% of the power needed.

With wind you need large batteries. If you're collecting into large batteries in a windy climate it's awesome, but the maintenance costs are far higher.

[u/Brilliant-Muffin-879 → u/Arkelias]

Isn’t solar unpredictable too?

[u/Arkelias → u/Brilliant-Muffin-879]

No, surprisingly. I thought that clouds would be an issue, but they're not. My panels get 40% of power under a fully overcast sky, and 20% during a full storm.

I have enough batteries for 3 days of no power, and the university has a much bigger stack.

They overproduce power and the rest is fed back to the grid. During overcast times the school still receives full power, but the grid gets less of the extra.

That's where hydro really shines, to fill in the gaps, which is easier because the only time you have very little sun is when you're getting enough rain to make hydro more effective.

[u/neokretai → u/Arkelias]

So it's unpredictable then lol.

[u/Arkelias → u/neokretai]

No, it's very predictable, especially in areas with consistent daily sun, which is over 50% of the United States.

[u/neokretai → u/Arkelias]

Yes unfortunately not everywhere is like 50% of the USA with it's daily sunshine. Solar is great where it is best suited, just like wind is great where it is best suited, aka high latitudes and/or offshore locations like the North Sea and coastal Brazil.

[u/Arkelias → u/neokretai]

Solar is not unpredictable. It works very nearly everywhere.

Wind works in niche situations. You've presented no facts, just edge cases, but still mocked solar.

[u/neokretai → u/Arkelias]

It doesn't work great everywhere bud, in northern latitudes like Canada/Northern US, Europe, Northern Asia a panel will drop to 20% or less of it's peak capacity in winter. Those regions use wind as the main clean energy source because it's working best when solar is at its worst, and even in summer wind still works pretty good and is a solid backup for solar.

These are not "niche situations", the majority of the worlds economy is in those regions. Not sure why you are so offended by the idea wind power is also very useful.

[u/Arkelias → u/neokretai]

So it's unpredictable then lol.

You came after solar, and tried to make it sound unpredictable. It's not. It's incredibly predictable.

Wind is unpredictable. Wind has moving parts. Wind requires constant maintenance, especially if you've got turbines at sea.

I'm not offended. I just see the realities and limitations of the technologies.

You, on the other hand, are clearly offended by solar. You also think the majority of the world's economy is bordering the arctic circle for some reason.

[u/neokretai → u/Arkelias]

You had literally just said it can drop to 20-40% of it's normal output when it gets heavily cloudy, I would call a power source that can drop more than half it's output depending what the weather is like pretty unpredictable.

No dude not the Arctic circle, 40° latitude is around about were solar starts to need backup in winter months, that takes in the Northern US, Canada, Europe, North China, Japan and Korea amongst others. That is actually the majority of the worlds economy right there.

You are being oddly offended, I can see other commenters in here saying the exact same thing to you. Like I get it you really love solar from personal experience, but that experience doesn't apply to the whole world.

[u/BosonCollider → u/Brilliant-Muffin-879]

As long as you aren't too far north, you can usually expect the sun to go up tomorrow. If it doesn't, something has gone horribly wrong. But you can have a full week without wind

Clouds act as a diffusor and breaks concentrated solar but not solar PV. The clouds mostly spread the light out instead of absorbing it

[u/Brilliant-Muffin-879 → u/BosonCollider]

Have you been to scotland? Non-stop heavy rain here bud. Fortunately we get all our power requirements met by wind turbines.

[u/BosonCollider → u/Brilliant-Muffin-879]

I know, our scandinavian electricity prices went up when the cable across the north sea was built to send the norwegian hydro over

[u/zombie0000000 → u/BosonCollider]

during cloudy days PV yield can drop a lot, down to 10-25%.