[cptskippy]

> Unfortunately, California is a terrible benchmark.

California is representative of more than 25% of the United States in terms of solar intensity.

People really need to get away from the idea that if a solution doesn't work for 100% of use cases then it's nonviable.

[bluefirebrand]

This is not what I'm saying at all

What I am saying is "it works in California, it must be ready to roll out globally immediately" is silly

It works in California means "it is ready to roll out in areas with very optimal conditions but long-term it still likely has a lot of speedbumps so temper your timelines accordingly"

That's all. I'm just tired of people thinking timelines are short when stuff performs under super ideal conditions

[acdha]

How about “it works in California, it’s ready to roll out in most places between, say, 45° north or south where most of the human population lives”? It’s not universally solving every problem but pulling the gigawatts of power demand it _can_ solve out of the mix buys time for us to decarbonize harder problems.

[bryanlarsen]

The whitepaper says that the optimal power generation for Birmingham is 62% solar. That's about as far from ideal as you can get bar locations north of the Arctic circle, and it still says that solar should supply a small majority of the power to Birmingham UK.

[cptskippy]

"It works in California" means that it is potentially viable elsewhere. As others have pointed out: California is not the sunniest, not the simplest roads, most consistent weather, or the most favorable regulatory environment.

If it works in California then it will probably work elsewhere. AND more importantly, if it doesn't work in California then it's probably not going to work anywhere else.

[supplied_demand]

==I'm just tired of people thinking timelines are short when stuff performs under super ideal conditions==

This feels like a strawman. We just started doing this in one place with ideal conditions. The next step could be other places with even more ideal conditions New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada (all have more sunshine than "ideal" California). [0]

We need to start investing immediately to begin overcoming the speed-bumps you mention. California has gotten to this point in about 5 years. Spend the next 5 years on the states I mentioned above. Then move on to Florida, Georgia, Virginia, Utah, South Carolina, and Kansas.

[0] https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/sunniest-st...

[erulabs]

Solar, self-driving, tax policy, software engineering, cryptocurrency, the list goes on and on. You can have 100,000 successes and 1 failure and someone will say "It just doesn't work!".