4 comments

  • jryb 8 hours ago
    I don’t understand how this achieves a higher density. Won’t taller towers cast larger shadows, thus requiring towers to be spaced further apart?
    • jqpabc123 7 hours ago
      These are not just taller. They also rotate to track the sun --- makes them much more efficient.

      The increased "density" is measured in kwh per acre --- and the increased efficiency figures into this.

  • jqpabc123 11 hours ago
    Texas-based Janta Power --- as low as $0.05/kWh compared to a global average of about $0.15/kWh.

    The solar revolution has definitely arrived when even oil soaked Texas is on board.

    At this rate, it will only takes a few decades for the USA to catch China.

    https://electrek.co/2025/09/02/h1-2025-china-installs-more-s...

    It's a sad thing to say but to see the future, look to China, not the USA.

    • thelastgallon 11 hours ago
      >At this rate, it will only takes a few decades for the USA to catch China.

      Where will China be in a few decades?

      • jqpabc123 10 hours ago
        Manufacturing most of the world's goods using automation and cheap power.

        https://futurism.com/robots-and-machines/western-executives-...

        • thelastgallon 8 hours ago
          Yes! Everyone forgets about the super cheap power in US and so many people complaining how their electricity bills are going to zero!
        • MisterTea 8 hours ago
          I wonder what the people in China will be doing then.
          • jqpabc123 8 hours ago
            Troubleshooting robots, developing super intelligence, working to further economic hegemony over western countries.

            I wonder what the people in the USA will be doing then? Still waiting for tariff payments from China?

            • MisterTea 8 hours ago
              So all 1.4+ billion people will be employed doing all that work. Riiiiight...
              • jqpabc123 7 hours ago
                Of course not.

                There will always be service jobs. But they will likely have lots of people on some form of Universal Basic Income --- which they will pay for using money sucked out of western economies.

                Where will the USA get this kind of money from? Borrowing/credit?

                https://www.the-sun.com/topic/universal-basic-income/

                It's a sad thing to say but to see the future, look to China, not the USA.

    • noir_lord 11 hours ago
      > The solar revolution

      Made me chuckle since the panels revolve to track the sun.

  • aitchnyu 10 hours ago
    Panels are becoming as cheap as the dirt from whence they came so owners of big plots spend the least welder-hours propping them off the ground. Would this make sense for airports?
    • MisterTea 8 hours ago
      "Uh, control, we cant see the ground because there is a massive blinding glare coming from what appears to be a giant field of mirrors with a landing strip in the middle."
      • thelastgallon 7 hours ago
        Matte solar panels like roads instead of glossy?
  • constantcrying 11 hours ago
    >Tall skyscrapers can hold significantly more people on a small footprint, so why not apply that thinking to solar panels as well?

    This is not a good analogy and seems to misunderstand the purpose of the arrangement.

    • jqpabc123 11 hours ago
      More kwh on a small footprint?
      • BobaFloutist 8 hours ago
        So, people take up volume, which is a cubic function, whereas solar panels take up surface area, which is a square function. But on top of that, though they might kvetch, people can be in a shadow and still be reasonably in a dwelling. If you started making a field of solar towers, they'd start casting shade on each other and reduce the efficiency. Which isn't to say that there would be zero marginal additional kwh/sqft, but that you'd get dramatically diminishing returns the less you spaced out the towers, which I think happens slower for people.