Science Memes

11399 readers

862 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

Rules

Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
Keep it rooted (on topic).
No spam.
Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.

Research Committee

[email protected]

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

1018

nuclear (mander.xyz)

submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

148 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I am willing to bet if you watched photo cells on solar panels under a microscope, the light would make something spin.

Nope, solar cells are solid state devices. ;)

Other examples of solid state electronic devices are the microprocessor chip, LED lamp, solar cell, charge coupled device (CCD) image sensor used in cameras, and semiconductor laser.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Nope, solar cells are solid state devices. ;)

except for the fact that you actually want a grid tied interia component for stability.

So even in that case, you still tangentially need a "spinning mass" even if emulated in software with how it supplies energy to the grid. It's still technically there.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Have you considered supercapacitors could be used for that?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 19 hours ago

that's still just inertia though...

Now just using the complicated AC coupling of DC energy, through complex electronics...

All when you could just, big motor with massive mass spinny real fast like, and then when the mass starts spinning the motor, it makes power.

Mechanically, it's probably both cheaper, and more cost effective to just use a flywheel, which is literally going to be an inertial system.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Honestly the easier way to switch from solar DC to grid AC is to just have a flywheel between the grid and the solar power plant. It might not be as efficient as a capacitor bank or super capacitor bank but it's dead simple to implement and it's extremely reliable.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

ideally you wouldn't want it in between, but beside, you would implement it as a "frequency smoothing" device, along side production, probably at a factor of regulation specified amounts.

Modern solid state conversion is very efficient and highly effective, it's just not great at the inertial problem, though it can be mitigated. It's just not as clean.