Scott Church Solar doesn't work at night, bad weather, or underwater....
· Comment — Archer T. Ships replied to Scott Church's comment. · View on Facebook · Markdown source
Scott Church Solar doesn't work at night, bad weather, or underwater. Production also varies substantially throughout the day. So, you need enough battery capacity to tide you over or some other way to produce energy when the sun isn't available. Solar also takes up a lot of land (a concern if you don't want to cut down forests/park land) or you have limited space (such as on a seastead). The panels must be built sturdy enough to withstand the stresses of wind and water, and periodically cleaned of biofilms. Nuclear is much more compact, and doesn't require as much maintenance. Solar + battery production/mining also produce a fair bit of eternal toxic waste: cadmium, lead, arsenic, etc. As with nuclear, much of that waste can be addressed by recycling, but currently it's difficult to recycle solar panels due to the bulk of their composition being low value glass.