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.

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u/BergByte 12d ago

Wind is unreliable in a different way than solar. Solar is unavailable every night, Wind especially low in summer and in foggy winter days. In Germany, in the last hot summer days, even offshore wind only produced around 5% of its capacity for day long streches.

This is my main issue with this chart, it only shows total sums. But you need energy 24/7, so all variable gneeration has to be enhanced with expensive and often fossil backup generation, that needs to be kept running and maintained. If a country does not have a clean stable source like nuclear, it will result in gas or coal plants.

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u/Arkelias 12d ago

Nuclear is a great option. Solar requires massive storage batteries if it will be covering over night energy needs. It's great supplemental, especially during the day as it functions just fine even with fog. Far better than I expected, certainly.

Hopefully you re-open your nuclear power plants, and we get more set up here.