[ExI] Small scale solar payback time (was Re: Planetary defense)

[Eugen Leitl]

On Sat, May 21, 2011 at 02:13:21PM -0700, Damien Sullivan wrote:

> Which raises the question: is it better to have fast growth but high
> maintenance costs, or slower growth but cheaper equilibrium?  If you

If you're using machine-phase solar collectors which feedbacks
energy continuously into your anabolism then you'd for the shortest
doubling times possible to colonize terrain, and then switch to
less metabolic churn to enhance harvesting.

People don't really scale, so at the moment you'd got for the 
high-durability option. In practice you won't be able to buy
anything else than mono or amorphous Si as the market is swept
clean of more advanced thin-film (CdTe and CuInGaSe).

> have 2 month payback, EROEI 12, vs. 2 year payback, EROEI 24 (48 year
> lifetime), which is better?  The first lets you transform faster, but
> has twice the 'maintenance and replenishment tax', not counting labor
> costs.
> 
> (Similar to bus rapid transit vs. urban rail; you can deploy the buses
> faster, but the trains take less maintenance and energy over their
> lifetime.)

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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