And todays gadget solar is this bench spotted outside Halle (Saale) Hbf. Whilst not quite as bonkers an idea as solar between the tracks (see previous rant). The extra ruggedisation required for the panels to make them suitable for sitting on seems an expensive way of doing solar. I find myself wondering if a larger panel that acted as a shade for the seating would not be a better option.
@quixoticgeek maybe it's less to do with this being an "optimal" design and more to do with this being a compromise that's way easier to get permission to deploy. Maybe they have permission for "a bench", but not "a bench plus roof".
Or, maybe it's that with this form, you can get more of them onto a single flatbed to drive around and place them.
If it is one of these things, I hope it's the former, because the latter would be a much stupider reason for the compromise.
@quixoticgeek That square needs some shade!
@quixoticgeek And. And solar shades would be good (clearly not at the same time). Every time we capture solar/wind/geo and use it as an alternative to fossil is good.
@quixoticgeek A marketing gag "Powerbank"? A sitting place for laptops? 😉 I imagine a very hot uncomfortable surface. This place needs trees and more shadow. We have shadowing solar roofs for parkings in France ... that would be better for people.
@quixoticgeek I do like the pun - bench is Bank in German, so Power-Bank is pretty good.
I have seen these around in Denmark as well.
@quixoticgeek
Yes, a gimmick.
A shade from sun & rain with a bench would be a similar cost and the "bench" is useless for solar of people sit on it with bags. Even people standing between it and the sun dramatically reduces the charging.
The panels between tracks is crazy. I can't understand why that was done rather than a fence. Here the rail lines often have tall steel fences.
@quixoticgeek As something useful, completely agree. If they were serious they'd be shading a good deal of that plaza.
As a PR exercise - I can see where the logic took them, even if I disagree with it. Normalising PV needed doing a few years ago but maybe the permits and bureaucracy are only just catching up to where we needed to be?
@quixoticgeek as someone who'll catch a sunburn sitting in front of a computer screen, this is a good idea! 🤪
I personally would never sit on a bench in the middle of the sun.
I always sit in the shade. So it'll get a lot of time to generate power
@quixoticgeek Especially since there's some large parasols in the background of that shot that are already a larger space. I do like the idea of using it as a USB charger though.
@quixoticgeek I've seen something similar in Aachen. Agree having a roof would be much better then can have a shade from the sun and rain.
