- HeckGazer ( @HeckGazer@programming.dev ) 11•1 month ago
Two billion thousand. If only we’d come up with a better way to say that. Like some kind of system of metrics. Lmk if we come up with something
- apotheotic (she/her) ( @apotheotic@beehaw.org ) English6•1 month ago
Eh I can sort of understand it in this case - many people are used to thinking of things in amounts of kilowatt hours.
If your journey was 1200 kilometres people might look at you strangely for saying 1.2 megametres
- HeckGazer ( @HeckGazer@programming.dev ) 1•1 month ago
I’d argue that’s only because km is a very ingrained part of everyday parlance. The use of a megalitre for example would not raise an eyebrow where I live.
Similarly megawatt and gigawatt are pretty common and for things on a global scale terawatts is not unheard of, I don’t see why it would be so different for TWh to resort to an arcane way of formatting it.
Don’t get me wrong I’m not autistic enough to not see your point, it’s just tilting to me to make these extra jumps. Esp. when Wh is already a cursed unit
- LostXOR ( @LostXOR@fedia.io ) 5•1 month ago
It works out to 7.2 PJ/year, or 228 MW average power output.
- mosiacmango ( @mosiacmango@lemm.ee ) 1•29 days ago
Roughly 250,000 houses of power.
- protist ( @protist@mander.xyz ) English1•1 month ago
Since the standard unit of electricity delivery is kWh, this notation makes way more sense to the average person than 2 TWh
- Jarvis2323 ( @Jarvis2323@programming.dev ) 9•1 month ago
California has one of these solar thermal towers. Quite a spectacle as you drive by on the way back from Vegas.
Interestingly this one does not store energy for 24/7 operations like the one in China. As they are both smolten salt based, not sure why
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivanpah_Solar_Power_Facility
- kindenough ( @kindenough@kbin.earth ) 3•1 month ago
Oeh, thanks for posting, I know this from Fallout:New Vegas but never looked up the facillity it was based on.
- Randomgal ( @Randomgal@lemmy.ca ) 1•1 month ago
I thought the facility was fake. XD
- protist ( @protist@mander.xyz ) English1•1 month ago
The one in CA doesn’t have any salt storage, I think it was built before that tech had been flushed out
One particularly grim side effect of the plant’s construction is that birds, attracted to the insects gathering at the top of the towers, are incinerated as they pass through the beams of concentrated sunlight. According to estimates, this results in some 6,000 deaths every year.
Geez, maybe develop some kind of screen or something
- JustEnoughDucks ( @JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl ) 1•1 month ago
Damn, I saw a video on why they use molten salt years ago, something about the balance of cost, thermal mass, and the fact that it won’t boil off like conventional liquids.
- caseyweederman ( @caseyweederman@lemmy.ca ) 3•1 month ago
That reminds me, I need to pick up some power converters on my next trip to Tosche Station.
- Antitoxic9087 ( @Antitoxic9087@slrpnk.net ) 2•1 month ago
just thinking: why stop at 2? I suppose a grid of heat towers with mirrors beneath would provide maximum utilization of the solar radiation
- mosiacmango ( @mosiacmango@lemm.ee ) 1•29 days ago
Cost, probably. If you only have 200 million, you can’t build 500 million worth of towers.
Could be transmission line limits too. Improving those can be its own project.