Re:How Long Would Society Last During a Total Grid Collapse?
by ltbarcly3 on Wednesday November 23, 2022 @01:07AM
(#33715791)
I don't think it's very hard to EMP harden anything that has a physical size less than a few hundred meters. The power grid is in danger because there is a huge potential created over very long distances. I think to be protected from EMP just requires isolation from large DC voltages, which can be done with an isolating transformer and some varistors? But something which is not miles long and isn't connected to the grid won't really be touched by an EMP anyway.
Re:How Long Would Society Last During a Total Grid Collapse?
by Kamq on Wednesday November 23, 2022 @02:46AM
(#33716344)
A couple hundred panels is less than half an acre or so.
Which, yeah, completely un-doable in manhattan (they already rules out NY anyways), but 10 acre lots are a thing in plenty of places.
I brought it up more for the space requirements. That’s a physically huge system. Panels are only a fraction of the overall cost. Unless you have a massive commercial building somewhere, 300 panels are going to take up a huge amount of ground-mount space. You also need a lot of inverters, wiring, etc.
Sure, somebody could do this with enough money and motivation, but the second question becomes: Why? That’s an order of magnitude more power than you’d need to cover a typical house’s energy use and top up those batteries.