<story><title>Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023</title><url>https://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/en/press-media/press-releases/2023/german-net-power-generation-in-first-half-of-2023-renewable-energy-share-of-57-percent.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sparkling</author><text>Why are people so obsessed with &amp;quot;solar roadways&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;solar train tracks&amp;quot;? This is a joke, a gimmick, it makes absolutely no sense. Well, except for the startups that are getting massive subsidies and grants for these clown projects.&lt;p&gt;There are still millions of open-space square meters all over the country. Think of flat-roof warehouses, supermarkets, parking facilities and more. Those places are easy to access, easy to install, easy to maintain. These train track installments however.... hard to install, require non-standardized panel sizes, non-standard wiring, special equipment, are in a dusty&amp;#x2F;dirty uncontrollable environment, maintenance is only possible in coordination with the train company. My guess is that these things are 4-5x more expensive on a per kwH basis, if you consider the total cost of ownership.</text></item><item><author>lopis</author><text>In the meantime, Switzerland is installing solar panels on train tracks [0] instead of, I don&amp;#x27;t know, people&amp;#x27;s roofs. There is so much promising tech coming out in terms of energy storage and we&amp;#x27;re seeing almost zero investment from governments. Everything&amp;#x27;s backwards.&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.techspot.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;98944-switzerland-installing-solar-panels-gap-between-train-tracks.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.techspot.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;98944-switzerland-installing-s...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>Aachen</author><text>Electricity, maybe. Energy? I wish.&lt;p&gt;This headline would be more true if we had transportation fully electrified and all buildings heated with heat pumps, but last I heard the proposed law to require the latter transition to be &lt;i&gt;started&lt;/i&gt; in 2024 was dropped again, and they&amp;#x27;re also still debating about &lt;i&gt;starting&lt;/i&gt; to require transitioning the combustion engine fleets to electric by, what was it, 2030?&lt;p&gt;I also still see stickers here, calling for the closure of a nuclear plant in Belgium. These people live near one of the biggest coal mines and power plants, but tihange is what scares them.&lt;p&gt;Looks like we&amp;#x27;ll have to dig in our own pockets if we want to be part of the solution, government isn&amp;#x27;t going to do it, even in a principalistic country as Germany. We&amp;#x27;ll get to +3°C or something but at least you can tell the kids of 2060 that you at least did what you could...</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>lopis</author><text>The people from Solar Roadways actually got support from several governments in the US. It&amp;#x27;s totally bonkers. They never had a proper functioning system. The whole idea is ridiculous and people pointed it out since the beginning. But it generated so much news that governments were so ready to jump on it. And they are STILL at it. So here we are, 10 years later, and still talking about putting solar panels in places where they will: break, get very dirty, be hard to fix and replace. We can&amp;#x27;t have good things because money and politics talk, not science.&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=2OLnfNrCQM4&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=2OLnfNrCQM4&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023</title><url>https://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/en/press-media/press-releases/2023/german-net-power-generation-in-first-half-of-2023-renewable-energy-share-of-57-percent.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sparkling</author><text>Why are people so obsessed with &amp;quot;solar roadways&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;solar train tracks&amp;quot;? This is a joke, a gimmick, it makes absolutely no sense. Well, except for the startups that are getting massive subsidies and grants for these clown projects.&lt;p&gt;There are still millions of open-space square meters all over the country. Think of flat-roof warehouses, supermarkets, parking facilities and more. Those places are easy to access, easy to install, easy to maintain. These train track installments however.... hard to install, require non-standardized panel sizes, non-standard wiring, special equipment, are in a dusty&amp;#x2F;dirty uncontrollable environment, maintenance is only possible in coordination with the train company. My guess is that these things are 4-5x more expensive on a per kwH basis, if you consider the total cost of ownership.</text></item><item><author>lopis</author><text>In the meantime, Switzerland is installing solar panels on train tracks [0] instead of, I don&amp;#x27;t know, people&amp;#x27;s roofs. There is so much promising tech coming out in terms of energy storage and we&amp;#x27;re seeing almost zero investment from governments. Everything&amp;#x27;s backwards.&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.techspot.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;98944-switzerland-installing-solar-panels-gap-between-train-tracks.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.techspot.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;98944-switzerland-installing-s...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>Aachen</author><text>Electricity, maybe. Energy? I wish.&lt;p&gt;This headline would be more true if we had transportation fully electrified and all buildings heated with heat pumps, but last I heard the proposed law to require the latter transition to be &lt;i&gt;started&lt;/i&gt; in 2024 was dropped again, and they&amp;#x27;re also still debating about &lt;i&gt;starting&lt;/i&gt; to require transitioning the combustion engine fleets to electric by, what was it, 2030?&lt;p&gt;I also still see stickers here, calling for the closure of a nuclear plant in Belgium. These people live near one of the biggest coal mines and power plants, but tihange is what scares them.&lt;p&gt;Looks like we&amp;#x27;ll have to dig in our own pockets if we want to be part of the solution, government isn&amp;#x27;t going to do it, even in a principalistic country as Germany. We&amp;#x27;ll get to +3°C or something but at least you can tell the kids of 2060 that you at least did what you could...</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>atoav</author><text>Solar train tracks or roadways are a dumb person&amp;#x27;s idea what innovation looks like.</text></comment>