
Bright (YC W15) raises $4M to bring solar to the developing world - sethbannon
https://medium.com/@JGreenberger/bright-raises-4m-to-bring-solar-to-the-developing-world-ae3d07abc93a
======
interesting_att
Can someone explain to my the biggest arguments against the viability of solar
energy vs fossil fuel?

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tim333
It's complicated but solar keeps getting cheaper, fossil doesn't. On the other
hand solar stops working an night unlike fossil so you need more complicated
infrastructure. I just googled the latest price for solar and was slightly
amazed it's dropped to 3.87 c/kWh for a bulk deal in Nevada. To put that in
perspective I pay about 20 c/kWh as a consumer in London. Solar was much more
a couple of years back. I've found an eia.gov estimate that the cost of coal
generation including building the plant for 2020 will be about 9.5c/kWh in the
US.

[http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/buffett-
stri...](http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/buffett-strikes-
cheapest-electricity-price-in-us-with-nevada-solar-farm_100020120/)

[http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/electricity_generation.cfm](http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/electricity_generation.cfm)

~~~
JoeAltmaier
And orbital solar collectors solve the night/day problem. The 50% improvement
in duty cycle would offset transmission losses.

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tim333
Orbital may be a bit pricy compared to a battery though.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Not so much any more (and getting cheaper), and orbital has huge advantages.
You can have square kilometers of collectors in orbit, with no ecological
impact statements to file, or eminent domain issues to solve, or annoyed
neighbors. You can grow an orbital farm essentially without bound, without
buying any expensive real estate. You can beam the energy where its needed
instead of having to consume it locally.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Rooftop solar + marginal land for utility scale is simply cheaper and more
feasible than orbital solar.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Land has to be close to use or transmission losses reduce efficacy. And
day/night 50% loss, remember? Feasibility depends upon cost mostly - and
that's changing every day.

Also, most solar worldwide is large solar farms. Rooftop is a yuppie gimmick
of no significance.

~~~
toomuchtodo
In places where you can't force your utility to buy renewables, rooftop solar
isn't just feasible, but the only way.

The Union Of Concerned Scientists seem to disagree with you that its a "yuppie
gimmick".

[http://www.ucsusa.org/our-work/clean-energy/increase-
renewab...](http://www.ucsusa.org/our-work/clean-energy/increase-renewable-
energy/affordable-rooftop-solar-united-states)

~~~
JoeAltmaier
There were 5GW of solar farms in
2014([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_the_United_Stat...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_the_United_States))

There were under a million private, rooftop solar installations, which are
each very likely under 1KW. Which amounts to maybe < 1GW total? Which amounts
to a percent of a percent of the solar-farm output. Which fits in the category
of 'gimmick' very nicely.

{Edit: math, thanks for pointing it out?}

~~~
toomuchtodo
From 2013:

"Already, the average size of a rooftop solar system around the country is 3kW
– and many of the new systems are well above that. According to Johnston’s
data, 5kW systems are now the most popular in the progressive “solar” states
such as Queensland and South Australia – while 3kW remains the most popular in
NSW and W.A. That is probably a reflection of the tariffs paid for exports to
the grid.

Of course, Australia still has some way to go to catch up with the US – where
according to SunPower, which specializes in solar leasing products, the
average size of rooftop solar systems has gone to 8.3kW.

That’s got something to do with the size of the roofs, and also the tariff
measures. Most places in the US get a 1:1 tariff, so the incentive is there to
put on a larger system."

[http://cleantechnica.com/2013/05/28/graph-of-the-day-
super-s...](http://cleantechnica.com/2013/05/28/graph-of-the-day-super-sizing-
rooftop-solar-systems/)

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ZeroGravitas
Their Mexican site seems to target the standard middle-class homeowner with
grid connection model. I wonder why they're positioning themselves as off-grid
for Africa? I would have thought the same model would be a good place to
start.

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codecamper
very very good.

