Yes, you have friends, who are powering their personal lives – their low density homes – with solar. That doesn't mean much.
I took a look at some stats, and it looks like a typical supermarket in a mild climate uses roughly 1000kWh/year of floor space. Meanwhile, in Ontario, a typical 20% efficient, high efficiency solar panel can produce just 277kWh/year. Parking needs for a supermarket are roughly twice as much parking as m² of floorspace (it is common to put in more).
Even if you covered the entire roof with solar panels, and the parking lot, you'd barely break even on energy in theory. In practice you'd do even worse than that as it's common to go without significant sunlight for days or even weeks.
...and that's just a low density, single story, supermarket! There are so many businesses, and residences, that use way more energy per m² than that.
Doing without an electricity grid is a pipe dream.
Peter Todd
npub1ej…3ndrm
2025-01-25 16:59:18
in reply to nevent1q…z52c
Author Public Key
npub1ej493cmun8y9h3082spg5uvt63jgtewneve526g7e2urca2afrxqm3ndrmPublished at
2025-01-25 16:59:18Event JSON
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"content": "Yes, you have friends, who are powering their personal lives – their low density homes – with solar. That doesn't mean much.\n\nI took a look at some stats, and it looks like a typical supermarket in a mild climate uses roughly 1000kWh/year of floor space. Meanwhile, in Ontario, a typical 20% efficient, high efficiency solar panel can produce just 277kWh/year. Parking needs for a supermarket are roughly twice as much parking as m² of floorspace (it is common to put in more).\n\nEven if you covered the entire roof with solar panels, and the parking lot, you'd barely break even on energy in theory. In practice you'd do even worse than that as it's common to go without significant sunlight for days or even weeks.\n\n...and that's just a low density, single story, supermarket! There are so many businesses, and residences, that use way more energy per m² than that.\n\nDoing without an electricity grid is a pipe dream.\n",
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