Bill and Melinda Gates: America’s Top Farmland Owner

Re:Bill and Melinda Gates: America’s Top Farmland Owner by ben_w on Thursday January 14, 2021 @01:57PM (#25780558)

Aye, but op has misremembered. A Texas-sizes PV farm with 20% efficient cells, and assuming 25% duty cycle for night and winter, would produce ~35 terawatts.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=texas%20area%20%2A%2010...

Worldwide power consumption is about 18 TW, electricity is about 3 TW.

And current PV looks like it’s good for 20+ years so you’re getting that power at about $3 trillion per year. The only reference I can find to current energy costs is this from Wikipedia:

"""In 2010, expenditures on energy totaled over US$6 trillion, or about 10% of the world gross domestic product (GDP)""" - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_consumption

On that basis, you’d be getting roughly twice as many exajoules for roughly half as many USD.

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Re:Bill and Melinda Gates: America’s Top Farmland Owner by newyankee on Thursday January 14, 2021 @02:17PM (#25780884)

Most PVs nowadays are guaranteed for 25 years and expected to last well north of 30 years. Some Chinese cos give 30 year warranties. BYD on its site also mention 50 year lifespans.

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Re:Bill and Melinda Gates: America’s Top Farmland Owner by throwaway894345 on Thursday January 14, 2021 @02:28PM (#25781094)

So we could halve our energy expenses ... but we aren't doing it? Why not?

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Re:Bill and Melinda Gates: America’s Top Farmland Owner by ben_w on Thursday January 14, 2021 @02:41PM (#25781321)

We are doing it. PV is growing as fast as people can build factories and install panels.

(Also: Quarter of the expenses if you keep power use the same: It’s half cost for double the energy)

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Re:Bill and Melinda Gates: America’s Top Farmland Owner by throwaway894345 on Thursday January 14, 2021 @03:02PM (#25781682)

Ah, interesting. So are these PV workers in crazy high demand then? I feel like I haven't heard about the kind of wild growth in the PV industry that one would expect from such a significant endeavor?

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Re:Bill and Melinda Gates: America’s Top Farmland Owner by ben_w on Thursday January 14, 2021 @03:18PM (#25781908)

Growth has been close to exponential since 1992, with an average doubling period of 2.2 years.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_of_photovoltaics

(Someone should update the “Grid parity for solar PV around the world”, that map was last edited in 2015)

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Re:Bill and Melinda Gates: America’s Top Farmland Owner by hoten on Thursday January 14, 2021 @02:11PM (#25780777)

Also, you wouldn't have to power as many Texans. More for everyone else.

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