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Comment Re:I know its not an original idea (Score 2) 23

The fact that it makes a big cloud around a galaxy or cluster rather than collapsing puts a lot of constraints on what it can do.

For more info, you'll have to go to someone who knows more about it than what I've read on science-news websites.

Dark energy is a real puzzle. As I understand it, it's too weak by a factor of 10^30 or 10^60 in comparison from what we should expect the known vacuum energy would cause. You see this mentioned very occasionally, but most treatments of DE that a layman runs across just ignore it in favor of wringing their hands over some issue that is trivial in comparison.

Comment Re:I know its not an original idea (Score 1) 23

Some boffin cam up with that idea, but they rule it out because DM apparently doesn't interact with itself (very much) other than by gravity, so it can't clump up tight like a star or a planet or a living thing. (Something to do with shedding energy, IIRC.)

But it's a cool idea. If I were a novelist I'd run with it.

Comment Re:Looking forward to this (Score 4, Informative) 239

The advantage of sodium battery means anybody can produce it, there's no geopolitical alliances needed to manufacture them. Lithium is super rare by comparison. Any and every country can domestically produce sodium batteries forever. The low temp operating envelope of sodium is interesting, but only 11% of the worlds population lives somewhere that is useful. The big benefit is any country can stick a straw in the ocean and build a battery factory regardless of sanctions. Go look at Iran right now if you want to understand why I keep harping on this point.

Comment Re:Looking forward to this (Score 1) 239

I dunno, people on boats and in vans buy this stuff and run it for a decade or more without problems. Name brands like anker and ecoflow have very solid track records and 5-8 year warranty on most of this stuff. It's not fly by night Chinese crap. All this stuff has a very solid track record at this point. I bought my first MPPT way back in 2017 it's still alive and kicking no problem

Comment Re:Looking forward to this (Score 1) 239

My roof is about 10 years from EOL so I'm not super eager to install it today as a full system is about $40,000 in my local market. By comparison I can install this in my backyard in about 45 min simply with hand tools. I will do both eventually but i can do this today and cut about 50% of my air conditioning and beat bill today.

Comment Re:Looking forward to this (Score 3, Interesting) 239

California and Texas are some of the biggest adopters of industrial batteries, and the prices keep plummeting. I remember being near an executive power summit in Idaho back in 2016 and all the execs said industrial power was pie in the sky and would never work. It has virtually resolved all of Australia's power "duck curve" problems. Solar + battery is just phenomenally economical today. China is bringing on NaCl batteries this year and shipping cars with them by EoY. Solar panels are made from beach sand and batteries made from ocean water. Couldn't get any cheaper than that.

Comment Looking forward to this (Score 5, Interesting) 239

We have a sunny, south facing portion of our yard. Looking forward to hanging 4 solar panels on the fence and getting 800-1000w (1200w "nameplate" max but reality is closer to 1000w) to offset our daytime use. We both WFH and then the kids are home by 3pm so being able to offset computers, fridge, and part of our AC/Heat bill is huge.
 
A couple of mfg, Anker and Ecoflow both sell a system that you do the standard 4 x 400w panel = 1200w plug in, and then a second 2000w (+5 more panels) into a battery system that discharges a max of 1200w overnight as the sun sets. I think they want like $1600 for the system. That's an instant buy for me when california electricity is $0.50/kwh

Comment Re:Still on the doors? (Score 1) 185

All of these features have been around for the past 20 years. I drive a 2005 Volvo S60R. It power windows, automatic headlights, automatic mirrors, door locks, lights, memory seats, fuel injection,ABS, traction control, self-leveling suspension, stability control, all wheel drive . The car is 21 years old. It also has full manual controls in the dash and I even managed to add an aftermarket head unit without the car freaking out. I can also turn a wrench on the car when it breaks, and I'm hardly a mechanic. People love technology in their vehicle, but still want the ability to service it themselves or take it to be serviced by someone aside from the dealer. However, many manufacturers seem to want to increasingly lock repair and service behind proprietary controls, requiring pin codes or access to their servers for updates. That's what people have a problem with. In the past, these features were self contained and did not require constant connection or pin codes to operate.

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