[ExI] Whatever happened to peak oil by 2020?

[spike]

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Eugen Leitl
...

>...Panels themselves are dirt cheap, it's the inverters and installation
that isn't falling as quickly...
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I am interested in how the inverter cost scales.

My friend with the Oregon ranch has an application which was mostly immune
from the load leveling problem: he was using his power to lift water to
irrigate corn.  That task needs to be done most when the skies are clear and
the sun is hot.  In the rare case when solar power is insufficient, he has
Diesel backup.

His operation is a few hundred kWp.  I would think there is some economy of
scale as you go up, with respect to power conditioning.  In this particular
special case, the power does not need to be particularly clean.  If the
power to the house is completely separate and the PVs are only running
massive electric motors, I would think there should be some way to take
advantage of the huge inductance of all those motors to help stabilize the
PV power.  Failing that, perhaps he could use DC motors to run the pumps?
Those things should be more forgiving and perhaps result in lower
power-conditioning losses.

spike