Rooftop solar system fires 1

[hokie66]

Keith,
‘Photovoltaic’ is an example of sesquipedalianism. We are not all sparkies here.

 

[JohnRBaker]

It also could have been some German who came up that word ;-)

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[itsmoked]

Hahaha!

You use "sesquipedalianism" to complain about photovoltaic??!!

These systems are generally referred to as "photovoltaic" or "PV system" or "solar" carefully, without the word 'system' attached.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

There is two domestically.

Solar thermal is the most efficient and uses vacuum tubes to heat water which is then used.

Photovoltaic produces usefull electrons.

There are a couple of other methods, the most scary one is again thermal which involves mirrors onto a ball heating water to utterly stupid temps and pressures which then gets expanded through a turbine. To produce electrons.

 

[enginesrus]

They also increase the work of fire people trying to put out the structure fires.

 

[JohnRBaker]

...the most scary one is again thermal which involves mirrors onto a ball heating water to utterly stupid temps and pressures which then gets expanded through a turbine.

You mean like this solar thermal farm where mirrors reflect the sunlight onto a series of 'boilers' mounted on towers, creating steam which then turns a set of turbines down at ground level? The picture below shows the Ivanpah solar farm near Ivanpah, CA, just inside the border from Nevada, on the way to Las Vegas:

April 2019 (Sony a6000)

Here's an earlier shot of one of the towers taken while the facility was under construction:

May 2012 (Sony DSC-H2)

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[TugboatEng]

FYI, they are mostly using sodium or molten salts in the tower instead of water.

 

[JohnRBaker]

Yea, I knew that ;-(

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[itsmoked]

Thought they called those 'bird flamers".

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[TugboatEng]

Streamers is the official name.

Imagine what offshore wind turbines are doing to birds where they aren't so easily counted when dead?

Animals are harmed by all types of power generation. That is fact. But a serious consideration we need look at is the sudden shift in light temperature from low energy sources such as LEDs. Suddenly we have moved from 1700k to 6000k when transitioning from incandescent to LED. In that same time period there has been a mass die off of insects and I believe artificial late night light is a contributing factor.

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

Thats the scary ones, I didn't go into the full details of them, they are basically setup like a nuclear reactor with primary and secondary circuits. Don't know much about them just read a bit of low level interest stuff.

They have done plenty of studies about on and offshore windfarms in UK and birds. The populations don't show any drop in numbers and no vast numbers of fatalities around onshore ones.

 

[TugboatEng]

Huh, that's odd because our studies show vast fatalities around our onshore ones.

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

Interesting will have to go look again.

They have put a lot of work in on minimising it in both Scotland and Norway.

I think one of the solutions was to paint one blade black.

Here is the sort of stuff we see on the subject in Scotland. And there is quite a large anti windfarm movement.

https://scotlandagainstspin.org/202...ping-to-minimize-bird-deaths-greentech-media/

Birds strikes and avoidance of wildlife has been part of my professional life for years.
Windfarms are actually a bit of a risk for aviation. They mess with radar mosaics and also can do nasty things to the lower wind profiles and turbulence. So we do get briefed on them and follow them.

Seems to depend on your definition of vast. Compared to the genocide that cats do to the bird populations its actually a very small amount. More of an excuse for NIMBYs to try and not have them nearby.

 

[itsmoked]

Streamers!

That's right! Thanks for that.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[TugboatEng]

I had a friend who's job it was to find and count dead birds on wind farms.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...oQFnoECCoQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2IpPPR9ncR3nSlq5Jnkdgd

It wasn't so much an issue of the number of birds killed but the types of birds. The raptors and predatory birds were most likely to fall victim.

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

That top bit gets to 550 degs C

Just googled why they call them streamers. Poor birds getting roasted

 

[itsmoked]

Yeah Alistair, probably not a problem up your way, more of a Southern California focus issue.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[Alistair_Heaton]

Do you paint one blade black in the USA?

 

[itsmoked]

Negative.

We make the blades water-clear so birds can't see them.

I kid. But no black blades.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[hokie66]

Why would that help?