(15-04-2022, 09:28 AM)Magoo Wrote: apparently a bit of noxious by-product in much of the componentry, especially from the batteries
lithium etc is mined, mines bad.
might also be the odd third world underaged underpaid pseudo slaves employed in the process as well.
bit like chocolate and coffee
we just want a nice hot bevvie, a caffeine buzz, or a little smackerel of something sweet by way of mr whittaker
a little harmless self frottage in an otherwise pedestrian existence., without depriving half the third worlds children
their education and childhood.
its ironic. the angst of those proponents of solar energy, that the toxicity of the by-product is as vile as petrochem products they loathe.
Those seeking "solutions" so often cling to something that sounds good when they don't know enough to see that the underlying technology isn't really going to achieve what's required. Solar is great on the roof of our camper, until one panel failed and started drawing instead of charging (which is what has happened recently, and will be fixed by replacing it). People using solar for individual houses/businesses seem to have mixed success. I really can't see that using up a huge space of productive land to only provide the equivalent power as needed for 100,000 homes is really efficient. And what about when climate change means we have more cloud and the solar power we can utilise now is reduced (something else we have experienced with our camper)? Examples of small scale experiences probably extrapolate to large scale problems in the wider world. Is the proposed solar farm just pandering to fashion and setting up a white elephant that will make money for Todd when it is sold, for someone else to have to deal with the long term problems?
We have a lot of sea around us, with rise and fall twice daily. Other countries are well on the way with exploring how to best utilise it, although, as with everything, environmental impacts are a serious concern. Maybe NZ could join the real world by looking in that direction.