<story><title>Tesla runs an entire island on solar power</title><url>https://www.engadget.com/2016/11/22/tesla-runs-island-on-solar-power/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>jamiesonbecker</author><text>Battery tech in general is really the limiting factor for environmental improvements of solar and wind over other common forms of energy. We need more advances here, and they shouldn&amp;#x27;t all come from Elon Musk.&lt;p&gt;One of the toughest things to overcome is that lithium ion batteries have a limited lifespan (although it&amp;#x27;s improving) and the cost for that life span compared to alternatives is pretty high, so the economics aren&amp;#x27;t great. Yet.&lt;p&gt;The environmental hazards, both in manufacturing and disposal, are not insignificant either[1].&lt;p&gt;With all that said, li-ion represents &lt;i&gt;our best bet for future tech advances&lt;/i&gt; that have minimal environmental impact, especially for space travel.&lt;p&gt;Eventually. (But if I was a VC, I&amp;#x27;d be investing in cleaner and more efficient ways to utilize petrochemicals in the near&amp;#x2F;mid term.. maybe looking at non-burning tech; whatever happened to fuel cells?)&lt;p&gt;1. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Lithium-ion_battery#Environmental_concerns_and_recycling&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Lithium-ion_battery#Environmen...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Tesla runs an entire island on solar power</title><url>https://www.engadget.com/2016/11/22/tesla-runs-island-on-solar-power/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>masklinn</author><text>The part I don&amp;#x27;t get is: why use batteries for large infrastructural power storage? Why not flywheels?&lt;p&gt;edit: looks like Oʻahu is getting flywheels: &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;amberkinetics.com&amp;#x2F;amber-kinetics-and-hawaiian-electric-sign-agreement-for-flywheel-energy-storage-pilot-project&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;amberkinetics.com&amp;#x2F;amber-kinetics-and-hawaiian-electri...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s too bad Tesla seems all-in on batteries even for large-scale storage projects.</text></comment>