I second this, how long would it take to offset their steel frames and the heavy chemicals used to make the panels? The plastics and metals needed to insulate and transmit this power. The upkeep needed to prevent this from just being a broken device one uses in place of corrugated steel. Centralization always wins here. Rather than solar panels in developing nations, why not redundant microreactors that can be airlifted to a centralized point in the nation when broken for repairs. This transforms backbreaking outdoor labor into a more whitecollar-bluecollar hybrid job that might allow the people of that nation to develop a skilled labor force and raise a family rather than make service calls to distant places
Certainly the very low costs that are quoted for solar energy depend on centralized installation that have economies of scale. Rooftop solar doesn't come close, although it doesn't have the land use problem that centralized solar facilities have.
As for nuclear, micro != cheap. As with solar, larger nuclear plants have better economics. One of the reasons why we've struggled to move from FOAK (First of a Kind) to NOAK (Nth of a kind construction) is that when we successfully build a reactor we think "gee the economics aren't that good, maybe we have to build a bigger one" and had they actually built a NuScale they probably would have come to the same conclusion.
They're assuming that we use the electricity to displace electricity generated from fossil fuels rather than the albedo effect. This article claims that painting roof white really isn't worth it for global effects
WorldPeas|11 months ago
PaulHoule|11 months ago
As for nuclear, micro != cheap. As with solar, larger nuclear plants have better economics. One of the reasons why we've struggled to move from FOAK (First of a Kind) to NOAK (Nth of a kind construction) is that when we successfully build a reactor we think "gee the economics aren't that good, maybe we have to build a bigger one" and had they actually built a NuScale they probably would have come to the same conclusion.
PaulHoule|11 months ago
https://www.geoengineeringmonitor.org/wp-content/uploads/202...
but can it make your building and the local environment around it cooler? Sure!