Comment Been there, done that.... (Score 5, Insightful) 53
I wonder why this is hot news even. Identical deployments are found in multiple places around the world, with the one mentioned in the linked article from here in India, for example, being over a decade old.
Ref : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...
They've also done this at scale, achieving identical objectives, and with great unit economics for the generated power. It also helps that many Indian irrigation canal systems are designed to pass through many villages along their run, so you don't really need to carry that generated power for very long before you can plug it into a grid point with load. The ground reality of the Indian solar project is quite different from way the linked article describes it, as being a failed project that bankrupted the company executing it. In fact, all the photographs used in the article are from the same Indian solar canal pilot... Go figure.
https://www.bbc.com/future/art...
https://groundreport.in/solar-...
The truth is, multiple projects have started being deployed post the initial pilot, and SunEdison's bankruptcy is all about aggressive M & A shenanigans in the US markets. Way to downplay an idea originating elsewhere as not really done... Until we do it.
But hey, nothing is really done right until it is done in the West, especially in THE US of A.... ðY"
P.s. : great job in the summary, projecting it as an innovation breakthrough, and not at all pointing out that it is an evolution, not a revolution.