this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2026
86 points (100.0% liked)
technology
24445 readers
293 users here now
On the road to fully automated luxury gay space communism.
Spreading Linux propaganda since 2020
- Ways to run Microsoft/Adobe and more on Linux
- The Ultimate FOSS Guide For Android
- Great libre software on Windows
- Hey you, the lib still using Chrome. Read this post!
Rules:
- 1. Obviously abide by the sitewide code of conduct. Bigotry will be met with an immediate ban
- 2. This community is about technology. Offtopic is permitted as long as it is kept in the comment sections
- 3. Although this is not /c/libre, FOSS related posting is tolerated, and even welcome in the case of effort posts
- 4. We believe technology should be liberating. As such, avoid promoting proprietary and/or bourgeois technology
- 5. Explanatory posts to correct the potential mistakes a comrade made in a post of their own are allowed, as long as they remain respectful
- 6. No crypto (Bitcoin, NFT, etc.) speculation, unless it is purely informative and not too cringe
- 7. Absolutely no tech bro shit. If you have a good opinion of Silicon Valley billionaires please manifest yourself so we can ban you.
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
The downsides are all capitalism related like shitty mining practices or planned obsolescence. The sun is the ultimate engine of all life on this planet. Fossil fuels are just repositories of sun energy that got buried. Getting our energy directly from the sun cuts out the middle men.
Also, from a "science is neat!" perspective, they're like one of the only forms of power generation we have that doesn't involve spinning a turbine
In a weird way this is the wildest bit. It's because they don't have moving parts that really makes them incredibly portable, incredibly easy to mass produce, little-to-no maintenance, magic endless electricity squares. Anything with a turbine is basically impossible to both mass-produce and install on unattended/domestic properties.
From another science is neat perspective, we've actually reached insane levels of efficiency. Average panels get about 20% nowadays, degrading to about half that after a couple decades. Top-end commercial panels are about 25% efficient. Experimental panels have claimed up to 40% efficiency in real-world conditions. Plant photosynthesis solar->usable energy is, depending on how you calculate it, somewhere between 3 and 11% efficiency.
I knew they were getting more and more efficient, but seeing the hard numbers is wild! Like literally enough to help push back on my ever present climate related doomery, ty comrade
I always find this neat. As cool and as futuristic as nuclear energy may seem it’s still just hot thing makes steam to turn wheel same as a fossil fuel plant.
Compared to that, solar panels might as well be magic.