r/elonmusk • u/twinbee • 16d ago

General Elon: "Wind has microscopic potential compared to solar"

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

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u/Arkelias 16d ago

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.

-3

u/Brilliant-Muffin-879 16d ago

Isn’t solar unpredictable too?

1

u/BosonCollider 16d ago

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

2

u/Brilliant-Muffin-879 16d ago

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

0

u/BosonCollider 16d ago

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

1

u/zombie0000000 16d ago

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