5 ms·

Maybe at the 100MW scale it already operates like this, but not at smaller scale. Recently I had a discussion with a county level public utility district where

Maybe at the 100MW scale it already operates like this, but not at smaller scale. Recently I had a discussion with a county level public utility district where we were exploring building a 1-10 MW Solar system on a closed landfill. The capability existed for us to wheel the power to a load that was interested in the energy, but the smallest chunk of capacity we could buy was 1MW and the cost to wheel the power would require a >90% capacity factor to make it economical. So the system may well exist, but I think there is benefit from some scaling down of the market rules.

barney54 11y ago
As I read your example, it sounds like the problem is solar's low capacity factor, not scale. But maybe I'm not understanding the example.
- jqkeller 11y ago
  Under the current regulatory schemes and market rules the low capacity factor of solar is absolutely a problem. I guess I'm saying that more flexibility for smaller systems to play in the markets will be important to increase renewable energy production. The advent of cost effective storage will obviously make the whole discussion easier.
eigenvector 11y ago
It's certainly a lot more difficult at the <10MW, distribution-connected scale. It sounds like the utility you were dealing with doesn't have any experience with variable generation resources and probably doesn't want to learn. What a lot of jurisdictions are doing to ease complications for small projects is creating a standard-offer feed-in-tariff for projects under a certain size that allows you to get a boilerplate interconnection agreement and a fixed price that is economical even at low capacity factors. But to be clear, if you want small public utilities to be forced to take your power on reasonable terms, you're actually advocating for more market rules, not less. With less rules, they'll just use their natural monopoly to squeeze you.

barney54 11y ago

As I read your example, it sounds like the problem is solar's low capacity factor, not scale. But maybe I'm not understanding the example.

jqkeller 11y ago
Under the current regulatory schemes and market rules the low capacity factor of solar is absolutely a problem. I guess I'm saying that more flexibility for smaller systems to play in the markets will be important to increase renewable energy production. The advent of cost effective storage will obviously make the whole discussion easier.

eigenvector 11y ago

It's certainly a lot more difficult at the <10MW, distribution-connected scale. It sounds like the utility you were dealing with doesn't have any experience with variable generation resources and probably doesn't want to learn. What a lot of jurisdictions are doing to ease complications for small projects is creating a standard-offer feed-in-tariff for projects under a certain size that allows you to get a boilerplate interconnection agreement and a fixed price that is economical even at low capacity factors. But to be clear, if you want small public utilities to be forced to take your power on reasonable terms, you're actually advocating for more market rules, not less. With less rules, they'll just use their natural monopoly to squeeze you.