Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumDo what the French do.
Let's follow France with their planet-saving initiatives
— Earthbiscuit (@pandjsmom.bsky.social) 2026-05-28T12:49:49.221Z
buzzycrumbhunger
(2,217 posts)I clicked because I thought there would be guillotines.
But solar power is good, too!
mopinko
(74,032 posts)Alansworld
(29 posts)Now I want to see guillotines too.
KS Toronado
(23,921 posts)
radical noodle
(10,699 posts)True Dough
(27,399 posts)heads would roll!
KS Toronado
(23,921 posts)and post it in a word document, simple copy & paste whenever you want to use it.
radical noodle
(10,699 posts)Irish_Dem
(82,575 posts)And they are willing to loan them to us.
You've gotta love the French.
We'll return them nice and clean but with a bit of wear.
KPN
(17,535 posts)No?
Raven123
(7,924 posts)niyad
(134,221 posts)OKIsItJustMe
(22,227 posts)Hyundai recently built a huge EV factory in Georgia, and the employee parking lots are covered by solar awnings. Here they are, under construction.

in2herbs
(4,587 posts)state - avoids a lot of water being lost to the heat, --- and they're doing it very successfully.
Yeah for solar.
OKIsItJustMe
(22,227 posts)Cheezoholic
(3,971 posts)irisblue
(37,974 posts)COL Mustard
(8,421 posts)Of course with openness in relationships. 😆
Silly me.
littlemissmartypants
(34,626 posts)COL Mustard
(8,421 posts)Tres bien! I would love to get back to France. Perhaps someday.....
littlemissmartypants
(34,626 posts)BeneteauBum
(828 posts)If there is voltage for a sufficient period.
Peace ☮️
popsdenver
(2,687 posts)hold up to large hail like we get out here in the SoWest ???????
KPN
(17,535 posts)OKIsItJustMe
(22,227 posts)Solar panels are surprisingly durable. In most storms, they can withstand the weather onslaughts that come. Even hail is usually not enough to damage your solar panels. But in severe hailstorms, the beating might be too much for the panels to withstand.
The good news is youre not entirely at the mercy of the weather; there are steps you can take to protect your panels and investment. From buying the right panels to layering on barriers, you can avoid losing your panels in the next hailstorm.
8 Ways to Protect Solar Panels From a Hailstorm
The beginning point of your solar energy system is the photovoltaic (PV) panels. PV panels sit exposed on your roof or elsewhere unobstructed to collect sunlight and convert it into electricity. Because solar panels are out in the open, you may worry that the glass or other materials are a sitting target for anything heavier than rain.
Fortunately, this is not the case. Solar panels can take a beating and keep going. The tempered glass on the surface is typically strong enough that most hailstorms will not damage your panels.
NJCher
(43,605 posts)can prevent hail storms from forming. They could probably use a similar system for this.
I visited a huge tomato farm in the Midwest. Tomatoes were grown year-round in greenhouses that seemed to go on forever. To work there, the employees had to transport themselves around in golf cart type vehicles--that's how big these greenhouses were. The tomatoes were grown vertically.
They showed me their system for preventing hail. I have pictures of it somewhere. It looked like a bazooka that was about 20' tall and there were several of them. When a hail storm that might damage the greenhouse glass was forming, they would watch for certain conditions and then set these bazooka-looking things off. It sounded like guns going off, only much, much louder.
on edit: I found a picture of the bazooka type thing. It's by the little white shed in this pic:

paleotn
(22,820 posts)Blue Full Moon
(3,672 posts)Sogo
(7,325 posts)nt.
debsy
(1,052 posts)drmeow
(6,024 posts)lead the way with that!
thought crime
(1,817 posts)(repost)
dweller
(28,744 posts)Oh and guillotines

DIY , si vous plait
✌🏻
hunter
(40,890 posts)I should stop by and see if it's still working. I'm sure the original inverters turned themselves into e-waste a long time ago. Inverter technology is much better now.
Solar Parking lots are everywhere in my California city now. The schools have them, the hospitals have them, a nearby supermarket has them...
Rooftop solar is common too. My own neighborhood exports electricity when the sun is shining.
We've reached the point in California where new solar installations increase the price of electricity because huge battery/inverter stations must be built to store the excess. We also pay to keep gas plants running even when they are generating no electricity. This is part of the reason we pay 43 cents a kilowatt hour for electricity. In general places with aggressive renewable energy programs tend to have the most expensive electricity in the world. Sunlight may be free but integrating solar electricity into a reliable electric grid is expensive.
As I write this batteries are sinking an excess supply of about 7 and a half gigawatts. This energy will be released back into the grid as the sun goes down and into the evening. Unfortunately there's a limit to that too. It would take a ludicrous tonnage of batteries to displace fossil fuels entirely, especially in the winter.
https://www.caiso.com/todays-outlook/supply