Wish there were more trains running between Orange and Bathurst, getting the train into work every day would be rad.
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The train line between Orange and Bathurst is nuts.
Who thought to go through Blayney?
Speeding up and not stopping at Blayney would be ideal
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https://electrek.co/2022/11/08/france-require-parking-lots-be-covered-in-solar-panels/
According to the government, this plan, which particularly targets large parking areas around commercial centers and train stations, could generate up to 11 gigawatts, which is the equivalent of 10 nuclear reactors
Always seemed weird to me that these kinds of places weren’t exploited already.
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It’s been talked about at work.
It ends just as a good will thing for the image and shading cars. The ROI is absent without government intervention atm.
It’s not ideal sighting as you’re likely to end up with part of the field in partial shade from the building and you can’t orient the panels for maximum production.
Here’s the thing though: if we’re going to decarbonise the grid the ROI on renewables is going to diminish. We are already hitting the point where utility scale solar gets curtailed on sunny days because there’s too much local production from household PV. In order to decarbonise the grid we either need to build expensive storage which will raise prices as it will only be able to sell intermittently, &or “overbuild” excess assets in each region so the whole NEM can run off solar in Port Augusta when it’s not sunny in Sydney and Melbourne. There’s also options being explored overseas that take advantage of countervailing weather - offshore wind blows when onshore wind doesn’t, vertical solar panels produce in the late afternoon, etc - but all these things will reduce capacity factor and thus lower ROI.
Either of these options is going to raise prices if we don’t do what Victoria has just done and start to take assets back into public hands to be run for the collective good instead of for the maximum profit.
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We’re planning a new lab build and are going to cover two properties with solar panels. Although it won’t cover our usage, it’ll take the hurt out and, as an environmental lab, it makes us look a lot better.
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While you’re not wrong, companies are always going to do whatever is cheaper. The engineer flying around currently makes sense but if it gets more expensive, they’ll obviously higher internally, pay the engineers less and, at the same time, the instrument that currently costs me $250k to purchase will suddenly cost $300k
Or virtual troubleshooting only…ugh
Actually, some cool things with AR/VR that would mitigate some of that.
It wouldn’t work as such. Some of the parts on these instruments are ridiculously specialised and would require someone fairly experienced to have a look. Plus some of the people running these instruments are pretty useless… I’ve even seen an engineer from one of the companies himself, break 3 parts worth about $1000 each, small ceramic discs.
As an example, I can pick up PFAS detections in the parts per trillion range on this stuff. We could easily detect one drop in an Olympic Sized pool.
I’m a chemist too. Feel your pain. We have a contract lab in Ireland currently asking our labs in Asia if we have spares of a specific column because their supplier can’t help. But we also have AR instructions for training and troubleshooting work that has reduced reliance on outsourced servicing. And travel budgets have been slashed, so that sustainability KPI gets met.
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Get ready for gas shortages, especially on Helium. Asia and Europe have been hit hard and they’re saying Australia may be next. Agilent have been holding seminars to try and prep customers to convert their GCMS’s to run hydrogen.
So, avoiding a future climate hellscape is an insufficient ROI. You want money too?
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Presumably the primary barrier to financial ROI in the commercial world is that property is mostly leased right? So if a tenant company is looking to install their own array & system they would have to basically do their analysis on the lease term which certainly impacts their thinking.
Also I’d say yes they would absolutely not be considering climate benefits in their ROI considerations other than for factors such as tax incentives & reputational risk etc.
It’s why we need government led initiatives. We cant rely on amoral entities to chose the virtuous path.
In fairness, there’s already incentives to have solar power etc as companies will be more likely to subsequently lease as power usage will be significantly decreased
I’d do it for the good will and car shading!
Not my decision thou.
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Oh great, another supply chain disruption in our future…
On brand to last week’s discussion:
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Good interview discussing methane and fugitive emissions.