Dr. John Barentine FRASMay 29, 2024

"'The light pollution from the [Tesla] Gigafactory is freaking nutty.'"

"'I live in a neighborhood very close to it and had to get blackout curtains for my bedroom. On cloudy nights it basically lights up the night sky brighter than a full moon.'"

https://www.thecooldown.com/green-home/tesla-gigafactory-light-pollution-austin/

#LightPollution #DarkSkies #Austin #Texas

Local resident shares frustrating photo of light pollution from Tesla Gigafactory: 'This feels illegal'

Reddit users are calling out the blinding light pollution coming from Tesla's new Gigafactory in Austin, Texas.

The Cool Down
Show threadChristopher KybaMay 29, 2024

@JohnBarentine The light emissions seen by the VIIRS DNB satellite for the factory in Texas are about 3x larger than the emissions from the factory in Brandenburg, Germany.

Depending on whether the lights are shielded in Germany, the difference could be much larger than 3x...

Show threadRemi BoucherMay 29, 2024

@skyglowberlin @JohnBarentine looking at this video posted 2 months ago, there seems to still be a lot of unshielded construction lightson generators used around the factory https://youtu.be/C5gMoN7cVvc?si=s80f7bSLRsipxEzw (also visible in the screengrab from streetview.)

Most of the permanent lights fixtures seem to be shielded according to the drone view.

#gigatexas @ night!

YouTube
Show threadChristopher KybaMay 30, 2024
@remiboucher @JohnBarentine Ok, but the larger point remains that the company was able to safely build the Brandenburg plant with ~1/3 as radiant light emissions.
Show threadRemi Boucher
@skyglowberlin @JohnBarentine yeah, I know that the use of light (both during and after the construction) is very different between Europe and the US, but even the size of the 2 sites for the factories are very different. https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/19ce0o1/tesla_factories_a_scale_comparison_january_2024/#lightbox
May 30, 2024 at 11:18amMastodon for iOS
Show threadChristopher KybaMay 30, 2024
@remiboucher @JohnBarentine Once the sizes are considerably larger than a pixel, the size shouldn't play much of a role. There is a certain density of parking places that is possible in 0.5 km^2, and it can't get larger.