The platform roofs at the new #cambridgesouth railway station are made of #solar panels.
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The platform roofs at the new #cambridgesouth railway station are made of #solar panels. The panels aren't on the roof, they *are* the roof.
@philcowans I'm all for solar panels absolutely everywhere, but the first thought that popped into my head when seeing this was wondering how much more energy these panels would be generating if they'd been set up properly in some field somewhere and oriented towards the sun for maximum generated power over the course of the day. This structure looks like it was really expensive to make both in terms of economics, but also usage of materials cost too.
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The platform roofs at the new #cambridgesouth railway station are made of #solar panels. The panels aren't on the roof, they *are* the roof.
@philcowans this is really cool. Imagine having all parking lots with this kind of cover. We won't need to cover land that can be used to grow trees for solar energy generation.
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@philcowans I'm all for solar panels absolutely everywhere, but the first thought that popped into my head when seeing this was wondering how much more energy these panels would be generating if they'd been set up properly in some field somewhere and oriented towards the sun for maximum generated power over the course of the day. This structure looks like it was really expensive to make both in terms of economics, but also usage of materials cost too.
@philcowans This strikes me as a "prestige" project that politicos can point to in order to say how green they are, while what we need is for governments to get behind cheap and replicable deployments at scale which use wasted space and have minimal material costs.
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@philcowans what's with that wood construction? Seems like such a waste and an overkill
@hrast @philcowans The panels are light, so the design choice of visually heavy beams was probably an aesthetic one rather than structural.
You can see inset access panels in the cross members which suggests that the securing bolts are hidden but accessible, which tells me that effort was applied to hiding the fasteners, which implies that someone spent a lot of time on the visual impact of those beams.
Could be they aren't actually solid glulams, but boxed trim over skinny beams.
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The platform roofs at the new #cambridgesouth railway station are made of #solar panels. The panels aren't on the roof, they *are* the roof.
@philcowans Are the backs of the panels light sensitive as well ?
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The platform roofs at the new #cambridgesouth railway station are made of #solar panels. The panels aren't on the roof, they *are* the roof.
@philcowans and they pass just a bit of light through.
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@philcowans This strikes me as a "prestige" project that politicos can point to in order to say how green they are, while what we need is for governments to get behind cheap and replicable deployments at scale which use wasted space and have minimal material costs.
@Infoseepage - there may be some element of that to it, although I haven't particularly seen them highlighted - I didn't see any signage at the station drawing attention to them. Ultimately it's part of a major public transport project, which is surely a good thing, and it also (partially) addresses a long-standing issue with the huge hospital next to the station having terrible transport links to anywhere where the ordinary people who keep it running can afford to live.
I'm also not sure that the availability or cost of panels is the limiting factor for there being some in a field somewhere *as well* as here. Availability of labour to install them could be though.
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@philcowans this is really cool. Imagine having all parking lots with this kind of cover. We won't need to cover land that can be used to grow trees for solar energy generation.
@caiocgo - I'd personally prefer us to have less need for parking lots, but yes, if we do then they should have solar canopies. France now requires this, the UK has just decided not to introduce a similar law.
Land currently used to grow biofuels might be a better place to start, although I agree that re-wilding it would be better still.
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@philcowans Are the backs of the panels light sensitive as well ?
@penguin42 - my guess would be yes, but I really have no idea.
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The platform roofs at the new #cambridgesouth railway station are made of #solar panels. The panels aren't on the roof, they *are* the roof.
@philcowans
Has always seemed to make rather good sense.
Is there sealant between the edges of adjacent panels, or are they laid on a grid with gaskets? -
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