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Not only that. Solar energy production follows the sun, which incidentally is what humans also follow and when they are typically active and using most energy.
by heisenbergs 8y ago
Not only that. Solar energy production follows the sun, which incidentally is what humans also follow and when they are typically active and using most energy. Hence, solar producing energy when it is actually needed and in most demand (peak energy). This is even more so the case in hotter places that need AC.
- manmal 8y agoFor ACs and cooking lunch, yes. For cooking dinner and artificial lighting, no.
- ben_w 8y agoDinner is relevant. Lights… take a standard lightbulb form factor fill it with batteries and coat the outside with LEDs, and it can last most of the night.
- djrogers 8y agoNow you’re right back where this started - accounting for the cost of batteries. Oh, and my stomach says dinner is most definitely not irrelevant.
- Max_aaa 8y agoTypically peak residential energy use is actually early morning and evening. And those tend to be the worst times for solar. Solar is great for businesses and schools, well basically anything that operates mainly or totally during the day.
- derefr 8y agoMost energy consumption in the world is industrial, right? We wouldn't need to have nearly as many power plants (of any kind) if all those power plants needed to do was to sustain residential usage. If you think of it as two power grids, then "the big power grid"—the industrial grid—can be fully powered by solar, and the residential grid, i.e. "the small power grid", is kind of trivial to solve in comparison.
- crdoconnor 8y agoIndustrial power is often more amenable to demand shifting though. I want my kettle to start boiling now, but aluminum smelters don't really mind if the throughput is highest at 3pm instead of 3am or vice versa, especially if that gets them a cheaper price. Even for domestic users, electric storage heaters, water heaters and electric car charging are all amenable to demand shifting. Over time, those will probably become the largest users of electricity if prices keep plunging. I think there's a lot of money to be made out demand shifting tech, especially if people keep erroneously believing that variability is a problem best solved with expensive lithium ion batteries.
- secabeen 8y agoAir Conditioners alone use about 6% of all electricity, so non-industrial is a big chunk: https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/home-cooling-systems/air-conditioning https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/home-cooling-systems/air-...
- prawn 8y agoNot sure if it falls under "industrial" but commercial use (shopping centres, offices, etc) fits with solar brilliantly, and at least where I live, offices are rushing to get panels on their buildings. We had it quoted for our co-working space, and the pay-off time was 3-5 years, which is amazing.
- a3n 8y agoHow long can molten salt make steam after the sun goes down?
- luhn 8y agoUnfortunately not the case, solar output peaks in the afternoon and load peaks in the evening. It's been termed the duck curve. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_curve https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_curve
- prawn 8y agoWhere it's hot, people come home from work as the sun is setting, and turn on the A/C. It can be 85F overnight in many parts of the world, which makes sleep very difficult.
- klipt 8y agoIf you leave your AC running all day on solar energy ($0 marginal cost), do you still need to run it at night?
- prawn 8y agoYes. Our house in Australia is reasonably well insulated, but if I turn off the A/C, it feels warm again within about 15-30 minutes. During summer, it can remain 30C (86F) overnight, and higher than that well into the evening. Recently in Oman, the overnight minimum didn't drop below 42.6C (108F) overnight.
- sjwright 8y agoA "reasonably well" insulated house by Australian standards is still laughably poor compared to modern European standards. We build rubbish houses here, and we can't insulate worth a damn.