The value of resilience

[scrambler]

To some, all you write of and more are byproducts, results and examples of the great dumbing of America and probably the developed world.

IMO only, the sky fell about the same time as the educational system in the U.S. started going to hell, but it was so slow in happening that in our self centered, inwardly directed myopic view or the world, we missed seeing it.

Now, we may well have fallen below the critical mass of collective intelligence necessary to get out of tour own way. Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.

+1 to that ...

[J.P.M.]

It seems the latest danger gets people to make strange decisions like hording toilet paper.

On the flip side most people I talk to or see around the country do not seem to care about too much carbon in our atmosphere based on what they drive and how they use electricity.

I am not sure if they simply are putting their heads in the sand or do not think carbon gases are causing a problem.

So either they just don't care or are immune to seeing disaster on the horizon.

Yea, what ever happened to using corncobs in the outhouse like when I was a kid on the farm ? No hoarding there. So much for adaptability I guess.

To some, all you write of and more are byproducts, results and examples of the great dumbing of America and probably the developed world.

IMO only, the sky fell about the same time as the educational system in the U.S. started going to hell, but it was so slow in happening that in our self centered, inwardly directed myopic view or the world, we missed seeing it.

Now, we may well have fallen below the critical mass of collective intelligence necessary to get out of our own way. Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.

[SunEagle]

I remember the oil crisis in the early seventies and that has driven my decisions more than any volcanic eruptions. As we head for more Public Safety Power Shutdowns I remember the lines of cars last year loading up on gasoline because of their fear of no gas pumps running without electricity.

COVID certainly taught us that more Americans are concerned about running out of toilet paper than any volcanic eruption.

It seems the latest danger gets people to make strange decisions like hording toilet paper.

On the flip side most people I talk to or see around the country do not seem to care about too much carbon in our atmosphere based on what they drive and how they use electricity.

I am not sure if they simply are putting their heads in the sand or do not think carbon gases are causing a problem.

So either they just don't care or are immune to seeing disaster on the horizon.

[Ampster]

I remember back in 1991 Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines .........

I remember the oil crisis in the early seventies and that has driven my decisions more than any volcanic eruptions. As we head for more Public Safety Power Shutdowns I remember the lines of cars last year loading up on gasoline because of their fear of no gas pumps running without electricity.

COVID certainly taught us that more Americans are concerned about running out of toilet paper than any volcanic eruption.

[J.P.M.]

And in my corner of Calif, I had to run the generator 2 days, because PV production was about 1/3 of normal from both smoke and heat. Today I got caught up, below 85F and clear skies. The weekend, is going to be a nightmare of hot weather thru Monday, with threat of statewide rolling blackouts in the evening, and Tues, high winds in fire areas may start PSPS outages !

The next 10 days or so are shaping up to be pretty interesting for the western U.S. Your location looks close to ground zero.
Normally lite winds are picking up here in 92026 as fast as the dew point is dropping. High temps. ~ 42 - 44 C for the next couple of days and more winds for 09/09 - 09/10 w/temps. in the 32 -34 C range and dew points dropping again.
Ditty bags and cars packed to get out of Dodge in a hurry if necessary.

Fun & games in the land of fruits and nuts.

Good luck.

[littleharbor]

I am in the Sonoma Valley and I would guess that in the past week my production is down 5 to 10% because of the smoke. As far as worrying about Volcanic Ash it is highly unlikely to be an issue, The last major eruption of Krakatoa was almost 140 years ago and it did affect weather around the planet. I would be more worried about hurricicanes if I lived on the east coast and earthquakes in California. Mt St Helens caused phyical damage one of which was sewers clogged with ash. That would worry me more than the loss of solar production. I don't have any active volcanoes upwind of my location.

I remember back in 1991 Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines had a large eruption that caused red skies for months afterward. Not sure how much it effected PV production as I was too young and carefree to worry about that kind of stuff. I do remember the awesome sunsets every evening though.



From Wikipedia , The effects of the 1991 eruption were felt worldwide. It ejected roughly 10 billion tonnes (1.1×1010 short tons) or 10 km3 (2.4 cu mi) of magma, and 20 million tonnes (22 million short tons) of SO
2, bringing vast quantities of minerals and toxic metals to the surface environment. It injected more particulate into the stratosphere than any eruption since Krakatoa in 1883. Over the following months, the aerosols formed a global layer of sulfuric acid haze. Global temperatures dropped by about 0.5 °C (0.9 °F) in the years 1991–93,[7] and ozone depletion temporarily saw a substantial increase

[Mike90250]

And in my corner of Calif, I had to run the generator 2 days, because PV production was about 1/3 of normal from both smoke and heat. Today I got caught up, below 85F and clear skies. The weekend, is going to be a nightmare of hot weather thru Monday, with threat of statewide rolling blackouts in the evening, and Tues, high winds in fire areas may start PSPS outages !

[J.P.M.]

I wonder how distant volcanic eruption would compare to local wildfire smoke in terms of solar production impact. My solar production is already down from recent wildfire smoke in NorCal.

Compared to the prior 7 years of monitoring, the average atmospheric clearness index (terrestrial ground GHI/extraterrestrial insolation in a parallel plane) for the last 31 days at my array in zip 92026 is slightly higher than average by maybe 1 % or so.
The total prior 31 day production of my array is at 101.4 % of the average of the prior 6 years production for the same period.
Just a snapshot of one small corner of CA. We haven't had much of the problems or smoke as has been seen up north. The prior 31 day ave. temp. has been ~ 0.6 C. cooler.

[Ampster]

I wonder how distant volcanic eruption would compare to local wildfire smoke in terms of solar production impact. My solar production is already down from recent wildfire smoke in NorCal.

I am in the Sonoma Valley and I would guess that in the past week my production is down 5 to 10% because of the smoke. As far as worrying about Volcanic Ash it is highly unlikely to be an issue, The last major eruption of Krakatoa was almost 140 years ago and it did affect weather around the planet. I would be more worried about hurricicanes if I lived on the east coast and earthquakes in California. Mt St Helens caused phyical damage one of which was sewers clogged with ash. That would worry me more than the loss of solar production. I don't have any active volcanoes upwind of my location.

[SunEagle]

I wonder how distant volcanic eruption would compare to local wildfire smoke in terms of solar production impact. My solar production is already down from recent wildfire smoke in NorCal.

Smoke and ash from fire reduces output for a much shorter time then volcanic ash.

But don't worry and be happy that you are going green.

[peatmoss]

solarix I agree 100%. I live in Northern CA as well and I've taken quite a hit on output due to the smoke. Not to mention I had to go rinse the panels as they were caked with ash.

[solarix]

As a full time solar installer, I vote for some federal spending to get the remaining engineering done on Thorium MSR's, otherwise in ten years we will be leasing them from the Chinese.

[solardreamer]

I wonder how distant volcanic eruption would compare to local wildfire smoke in terms of solar production impact. My solar production is already down from recent wildfire smoke in NorCal.

[SunEagle]

Stop building Fukashima type plants in seismically active and Tsunami risk areas would be a good start.

I agree with you. It makes no sense to build anything in a seismic area unless it can handle at least a 9 and has a lot of backup.

Why do you think they put all of our ballistic missiles up in the Dakota's and Montana? Nothing shaking up there.

[littleharbor]

Stop building Fukashima type plants in seismically active and Tsunami risk areas would be a good start.