humanspiral

I don't know about the practicality of rails as conductor, but it wouldn't have to be high voltage.

About the train “deploying tons a day”, where did you get that from?

article said special train could deploy 1000 panels per day.

While every comment here seems to scream "end patents", arm has less patent bs than other tech (rounded corners) meant to sue/prevent use. Arm works hard on developing and improving architecture and designs to offer licenses at a compelling price. Qualcomm paying as much as other licensees should be preferable to Qualcomm than bankruptcy.

Their justification for tariffs on Chinese cars was that they were uncompetitively cheap due to subsidies.

This is mostly a lie. EU placed smaller/fairer tariffs based on those subsidy allegations, but in US, all politicians are devoted to oil oligarchy profits. 100% EV tariffs and 50% solar tariffs, 25% battery and ebike tariffs are all about protecting oil, instead of small domestic solar industry. Global warming is a lower priority than war, or making sure existing and new oligarchs have plenty of profits to fund politicians with.

the cheapest battery chemistry, used in most affordable EVs, uses no nickel or cobalt. "Race"/premium EVs still want to use that type of battery, though

China's ultra cheap EVs are subcompacts that are extremely well suited to small batteries to keep them cheap, while having good range/mileage. Small batteries can work for EVs if there is good charging infrastructure. Europe, being densely populated, is suited to having good charging infrastructure on heavily used highways, and "drive through small towns" which have cafes and restaurants suited to recharging at EU life pace.

EU/French car history is ultra well suited to small cars, where cities have narrow streets, and affordability has always been popular.

EVs with small batteries, even in EU/US, can be built cheaper than ICE vehicles by domestic brands. Battery costs are falling everywhere, but licensing/importing Chinese tech to bringing battery costs down, is path to domestic EV industry success/growth. EU is especially vulnerable to geopolitical oil extortion, from both friends and foes.

I think the concern is more about brine that have heavy metals in them. Carbonated water is safe to drink, even if not safe for fish.

The leaks can lead to heavy metal contamination and potentially lower pH levels, all of which can make drinking water undrinkable

Brine contamination, I know very little about, but if it stayed near bottom of lake, may not pose a fish or water source risk. Salt may dilute to rest of water, but heavy metals would not? Water becoming Perrier, or otherwise high co2 levels, may affect fish, if they don't move, but not a human drinking hazard.

What I do know about is CCS projects. The most successful CO2 capture project from a 100mw coal turbine cost $1B, and captured 65% of CO2. In Saskatchewan. These costs ($10/watt above the fossil plant) are comparable to power costs of on budget nuclear (not a cost/time effective climate solution). The CC process involves a giant building that replaces a chimney, and passes the flue through a liquid that will capture the CO2. Coal interests are avoiding all CCS projects because they are completely uneconomical. Other FF electricity use a similar process, though coal emits H2S (acid rain and smog problem) that needs to also be captured. Blue H2, has a problem of while the process gasses can be separated, the heat needed from the process is usually NG powered, and needs a chimney like electricity production.

A far cheaper way of reducing coal or other FF emissions by 65%, is to replace them with solar+4 hours batteries, and keep the FF plants as a backup peaker that will run far less than 35% of the year. Because land around a coal plant is extremely undesirable for any other purpose, it is often sufficient to produce the same energy as the coal plant from solar.

solar canopys are actually quite expensive. Needs a very sturdy structure to hold panels high up and deal with wind loads. Solar panels are getting so cheap, that it becomes very reasonable to lay them on the ground instead of optimal angles, higher up.

I like the idea. Free land use. I wonder if the rails can be used as electric conductors. A special train can deploy tons per day, and could clean them regularly in a highly automated way.

Unlike roadways, they don't carry any load.

this would call for the use of phase changing material to absorb the heat from the back of the solar panels

There are quite a few "better" technologies for cooling solar panels, which happens to also improve their efficiency/production.

Thermoelectric devices would boost production a little, and keep production a bit past end of day. This might not yet be cost effective, but massive production scale could change that. Circulating water behind the panels, transfers the most heat, and hot water is useful to everyone. A simpler, leak proof, technology is to suck in air behind/under the panels that creates a flow that will cool them, and use that hotter air to feed a heat pump.

I'm not sure of the validity of model, though I appreciate the effect of cooling at night.

Without solar, ground, usually fairly dark, absorbs solar heat at 100%. Solar panels cover 75%-80% of this heat to electricity, and while they get hotter than lighter shaded ground, the heat capacity of dirt is much higher, and the heat is lost quicker from air/wind contact. Similarly a building that has a solar cover with a slight airgap, will be cooler during the day than without solar, and using less AC, produce less warming surrounding the building.

For cold areas, snow cover actually retains warmth in soil. With bifacial panels, increases winter production significantly. No airgap over buildings, is path to keeping more heat for building, but using an airgap to help preheat air or water pipes for heat pump is just another path of using environmental heat to focus on useful heat. Heat pumps for heating (vs cooling) in general reduce outside temperatures.

Exponential

Battery prices plummetting, and V2G from EVs, is a path for near tropical regions to get to 90% solar energy. Robotics based manufacturing shifting to those regions is also a likely shift. Northern lattitude quality of life from global warming, is still a nice source of population attractiveness. Hydrogen made from solar is the path to 100% renewables and solar everywhere. Canada is a decent place for solar because of extremely long summer days. Canada can both make H2 in summer, and use H2 in winter. Even near tropical locations would have large spring and fall surpluses to cover near full summer demand from solar. They also need to make H2 from those surpluses.