Meteoric – Drones that clear clouds over solar farms

num42

Interesting, but off topic: What could go wrong if it’s done in the long term? What are the possible edge cases for this application? Will it work in complex weather conditions?

chrsstrm

Unfortunately there are no FAQs here as I’d like to know who has the authority to give permission to a contractor to alter the airspace above your property at cloud height. This seems legally sticky.

xlayn

In animatrix there is this part of the video where the devised path forward is "the destruction of the sky" and you can see all this millitary and business people clapping... then the image turns to all that people as skeletons clapping... let's burn stuff until the heat is unbearable, what can go wrong? let's mess with nature, what can go wrong...? let's destroy the clouds so we can improve the ROI in our solar farm, fuck the shade, the water and the rain...

porridgeraisin

Related Reflect Orbital: Sunlight after dark using a constellation of spatial reflectors | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42995403

0cf8612b2e1e

We are quickly getting to the point where solar panels are cheaper than fencing. Even if this technology does work, that’s a lot of additional operational overhead vs installing more panels to better handle cloudy days.