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Izawwlgood t1_jc8xmgb wrote

Reply to comment by thormun in Researchers: Floating solar panels could provide over a third of global electricity by TurretLauncher

Just some considerations for conversation -

  1. Applications to increase waters reflectivity and prevent the penetration of some wavelengths have been considered to reduce solar absorbance, to reduce heating.
  2. The square footage at hand here is vanishingly small compared to the square footage of the ocean. You could easily just put these out to sea over deadzones, where ecosystems aren't reliant on light anyway.
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weaselmaster t1_jc8z820 wrote

Changing water’s reflectivity would be suicide - a suicide that we’re already attempting by bathing with oily UV-reflective sun tan lotion all over ourselves, that then blocks the needed UV light from underwater plants, eliminating entire habitats.

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