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Solar power expected to dominate electricity generation by 2050—even without more ambitious climate policies (techxplore.com)

submitted 10 months ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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Solar power expected to dominate electricity generation by 2050—even without more ambitious climate policies::In pursuit of the ambitious goal of reaching net-zero emissions, nations worldwide must expand their use of clean energy sources. In the case of solar energy, this change may already be upon us.

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[–] 5dashes@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

What about all the appliances expecting AC input?

[–] Raxiel@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

There would still be a need to convert DC to AC, both for that reason and for export to the grid, but the first thing a lot of appliances do is internally convert to DC anywhere. If it became the norm for homes to have a distributed DC supply, there could well be a cottage industry in replacing the PSU component springs up.

[–] sorghum@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

There was a time early in the electrification of America with Edison, he pushed for DC over AC. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_currents

The last DC utility turned off in 2007. http://www.jaygarmon.net/2010/11/in-what-year-did-last-of-new-yorks-dc.html

As far as answering your question, you can run a transformer, but new construction and new appliances will likely be built with DC service in mind.

[–] frezik@midwest.social 1 points 10 months ago

Most things with a motor would prefer AC. Alternatively, they use DC, but it's a brushless motor with more complicated electronics and are more expensive for it. This would apply to anything with a heat pump, which includes air conditioning and hybrid water heaters.

Things that run electric resistive heating is fine with either AC or DC, but it has to be higher voltage. The benefits of DC disappear because nothing wants to run at the same voltage.