Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

The gravity will remain the same in 100 years span so hauling agricultural loads with a drone will require same (rather enormous) energy expense. Since the video shows some tiny-ass wind turbines on generation side this is rather doubtful.

(I do realize that am nitpicking on a marketing video here)



(I do realize that am nitpicking on a marketing video here)

Yes, but it's a generic problem with "green" advertising.

Sierra Club image of wind farm.[1]

Real world wind farm.[2]

Wind and solar started beating Big Oil when they became Big Wind and Big Solar.

[1] https://www.sierraclub.org/sites/www.sierraclub.org/files/st...

[2] https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/aerial-view-wind-turbines-sp...


This is mostly because we don’t have small wind farms everywhere. We have one really huge one in a central location.

I feel like solarpunk leans more towards decentralization.


It's an issue with practicality: a smaller wind turbine requires a similar amount of maintenance as a huge one, while the latter converts the energy more efficiently due to greater rotor span.

Then you are not going to build a sole turbine† in a middle of nowhere, because it requires a transformer /DC inverter and a connection to grid. These things are costly and best amortized over large farms. Same goes for maintenance: there's periodic maintenance for various systems and much of the cost is getting specialists and gear there and back.

(†) There are cases when you'd use turbines of grid, like with remote mines/outposts but these are rather special.




Consider applying for YC's Winter 2026 batch! Applications are open till Nov 10

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: