He did an entire video about the economics of solar and did not have a single spreadsheet. He didn't reference a solar calculator. He doesn't even mention the cost of inverters which nowadays cost about as much as your panels. "NOOOO hyper-scalers look like they can make money on it, that must be why it's the future!" What a facile argument. Run the numbers like hundreds of other solar videos and show it. I happen to agree that solar makes a lot of sense in a lot of places but the fact he touches literally nothing about grid stability or even using a real world roof top solar quote as a reference is maddening. The dumb part is it goes both ways, solar, wind, and batteries can help reduce peak transmission which then reduce infrastructure costs by stretching them out over time. Put this into a 90 minute video about solar? No, I must sperg about Republicans and dumb fuck white women driving cars into cops.
Also the dude doesn't understand the concept of surface area
Speaking of surface area, rather than measuring by energy production per unit area and calculating his net power production with a solar calculator, he just says 12 panels can power his car. What? There are so many additional factors glossed over there the statement is useless. Dave at EEVblog ran the numbers properly on real world historical data and his car is something like 90% solar powered along with his house. He has two arrays, each larger than 12 panels, and lives in Australia with year round sunny weather.
He hand waves away recycling batteries with a reference to a video by JerryRigEverything, another YouTuber who keeps his politics mostly hidden between politisperg sessions, rather than referencing the
very positive document by the ICCT which is the first result when looking up "Lithium Ion Recycling Plants". A document showing that there is private money going into massive recycling plants, thus bolstering his point. When it comes to solar panel recycling there are dozens of videos showing the process. That he does not reference these sorts of items shows how little he cares about researching the topic and is more interested in grand standing his Reddit takes.
He was so confidently holding his hands on that solar panel and saying that every part of it can be completely recycled. Sure, but at what cost? Each one of the parts can be easily recycled when they're separate, but not when they're glued together. As is, it needs to be ground up and dissolved or incinerated. Nobody has been able to make it economically viable yet.
Looking around their are companies recycling panels, but they are actually pushing for a core scheme to force recycling. Their biggest competition is actually the third world buying used panels that have fallen off safety certification which takes the old panels off the market. They claim they have markets for all the materials. I will say that I have never heard of silicon metal being recycled into chips, I would figure the impurities would be a big issue. The glass is literally sold at sand prices so you are reliant on copper, aluminum, silicon, tin, and copper to make your nut. All those should have sufficient value for recycling.
On materials, this fucking autistic faggot has spent the last decade making in depth videos on every day electronics and he has no idea what RoHS is? Dumb fuck, lead solder isn't used in consumer electronics because it's expressly banned. Now with solar there is an open question since RoHS does not apply on fixed installation panels, but that is the exact kind of 'tism I expect from a movie length video on solar feasibility. Maybe, just maybe, get a lead test kit and show the audience whether or not the chinesium panel has lead solder.
In the end it's is a 90 minute video which is really a smug march to his end goal of spergin about Republicans.
He talks like a fag and his shit's all retarded.
Okay, he talks that ethanol from corn doesn't make sense, and yeah obviously, every mechanic or enthusiast with a vintage car will agree that ethanol doesn't make economical sense and also hurts the fuel system if left to sit for more than a month, and that it shouldn't be added to gasoline at all.
If it were 100% bad then people wouldn't be running ethanol/methanol setups. There are certain advantages to it that give accumulative 1% gains: octane booster, higher heat of vaporization helping cooling == more possible boost/leaner air/fuel ratios, alternative octane boosters are more expensive or cause negative emissions, etc. The claims of it eating fuel systems may have been true but my decades old vehicles run on the cheapest available pump gas beg to disagree. Just season your small engines and you'll be fine.
