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My gf is an electromechanical engineer at a solar power startup (and obviously supportive of solar power initiatives). Just asked her about this, and she said
by jmcgough 11y ago
My gf is an electromechanical engineer at a solar power startup (and obviously supportive of solar power initiatives).
Just asked her about this, and she said that:
1) the electrical grid wasn't designed for transferring power this way, and it can damage the grid
2) because solar power isn't a constant power source (say, a cloud blocks the sun for a minute), power companies need to keep power available for someone who's using solar. The amount of this is dictated by their peak power usage. May not seem like a big thing, but as more and more people switch to solar, they suddenly need to hold massive amounts of power, as disruptions can affect people in entire regions.
Then she started getting heavy into the physics of reactive power and my brain stopped working T_T
Anyways, there's a reason that they're charging fees for solar usage. You're using their electrical grid, and it costs money to maintain it and improve it to handle some of the new challenges of solar power.
- jmcgough 11y agoLegislation around blocking non-profit internet and cable is just evil though :\
- peppaz 11y agoGood thing Tesla is making huge battery packs for our homes so we can ditch the grid entirely.
- DamnYuppie 11y agoYou don't need to wait for Tesla, you can buy Lithium battery packs now. Heck even AGM or wet cell batteries work fine. I have about 800 ampH and I can do pretty much anything I want except run an AC off of it.
- artmageddon 11y agoHow much did it run?
- DamnYuppie 11y agoBatteries were about $650.
- ams6110 11y agoI think it will never be the case that you can run a household solar/battery plant for less than a utility can do it on massive scale and just run a wire to your house (remember to factor in depreciation on all your household kit, batteries and inverters don't last forever).
- azernik 11y agoI think this applies more on the battery side than the solar side. There are certain options for storage that are totally impractical for home use. For example, vanadium redox batteries [1] are so bulky that you probably don't want to put them in expensive residential real estate, but they're pretty cheap and effective. But a mix of residential solar and utility-managed batteries could be viable; it's not clear to me that the economies of scale for large solar installations are very strong. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanadium_redox_battery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanadium_redox_battery
- jackmoore 11y agoI think this is true too, but it depends on how efficiently the utility company runs their business, and how much profit margin they are allowed to extract. Utility companies aren't competing directly with each other for the lowest price, so in practice there could be a lot of places where, while less efficient, it's cheaper for home owners to have their own means of power production.
- yourapostasy 11y agoI wish more engineering work would be performed on different chemistries in redox flow batteries. I'd rather spend the capital up front for a much longer-lasting redox flow battery (they are way, way bigger than other batteries, but that's not a concern when you are working with building sites and are willing to put the battery bank underground) than a lithium battery.
- stale2002 11y agoSolar power REDUCES peak grid usage; it does NOT increase it. When do you think solar power is producing the most electricity? In the afternoon on a hot summer day. When do you think peak grid electricity usage peaks? In the afternoon on a hot summer day! Solar power helps get rid of the peak electricity usage problem. If anything, power companies should be paying solar users even more, because they are reducing costs for the power company, not increasing them.
- lambertsimnel 11y agoWhy does grid electricity usage peak on hot summer afternoons? If it's because of air conditioning, it's probably not universal. I imagine hot summer afternoons are a time when factories operate below capacity (or not at all), and people heat their homes less and spend more time outside away from TV, etc.
- ptaipale 11y agoCertainly not universal. Could be true in California or Texas, possibly. For sure it's not here. Where I live, the peak is a winter morning which is windless and therefore particularly cold, at 8:00 (before sunrise). Solar output is zero, wind power output is zero. Everyone turns extra heaters on, puts the kettle on to make a hot cup before taking a warm shower.
- brianvan5155 11y agoIt's creating new peaks at previously non-peak times. We don't know precisely what effect that will have on the grid utility business, or what effect that will have on overall grid supply price rates. One could argue that grid power should get cheaper... one could argue that there would be a net canceling effect among all the factors involved... or one could much more reasonably say that it's a chaotic system so no outcome is guaranteed. Disruption!
- g8oz 11y agoIt goes both ways. Widespread grid-tied distributed generation can save on distribution equipment maintenance wear and tear further upstream. Neither side has honestly acknowledged or studied the trade offs.