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lol no it won't. This is a horrible oversimplification. Solar panels can only offset some energy requirements for a limited time in certain climates. Even if yo

lol no it won't. This is a horrible oversimplification. Solar panels can only offset some energy requirements for a limited time in certain climates. Even if you were to install batteries in every home, the cost is monumental, battery supply is limited and you lose the economy of scale.

dheera 5y ago
If they had controlled COVID early enough the economic losses could have quite possibly allowed for everyone to have solar already.
toomuchtodo 5y ago
It’s the future actually. https://www.tesla.com/en_au/support/energy/savpp-faqs https://www.tesla.com/en_au/support/energy/savpp-faqs (South Australia Virtual Power Plant FAQs) https://www.utilitydive.com/news/teslas-australian-virtual-power-plant-propped-up-grid-during-coal-outage/568812/ https://www.utilitydive.com/news/teslas-australian-virtual-p... (Tesla's Australian virtual power plant propped up grid during coal outage) > Once complete, the VPP will include 50,000 houses fitted with 5 kW rooftop solar systems and 13.5 kWh Tesla batteries. Together, they will be capable of delivering up to 250 MW of solar power and 650 MWh of energy storage. > So far, less than 1,000 homes have been completed. Still, the aggregated storage was able to make a difference. With regards to Australian rooftop solar potential, it’s estimated at almost 179GW, roughly a bit more than 3.5x total current Australian generation capacity.
- sokoloff 5y ago
  What’s the ratio on a GWhr/year basis? 3.5x the peak power seems like it could easily be less on a total energy basis. Looking here, it seems like 1 GWp in Australia can yield around 1500GWh/year. A conventional plant running just 20 hours per day yields 7300 Wh/Wp/yr. https://www.solarchoice.net.au/blog/how-much-energy-will-my-solar-cells-produce/ https://www.solarchoice.net.au/blog/how-much-energy-will-my-...
jsight 5y ago
I don't think the person you are replying to had a good plan, but solar definitely could offset the energy consumed by cars. The average car will only consume ~12KWh per day. Even a small 3-4KW system can do that. Yes, its an oversimplification, but in a world where the problem is all the electric cars, you also have rolling battery buffers available whenever you want them. We already use hot water heaters and air conditioners in a similar way. Peak shaving with people's home charging setups wouldn't be hard to add.
- sokoloff 5y ago
  In normal times, my electric car is almost never at home when the sun is shining on my solar panels.
  - dheera 5y ago
    So you feed the power to the grid and the grid charges your car at work.
m463 5y ago
I think the problem is that much energy policy originates from california, which has a relatively mild climate. Additionally in california, peak energy demand seems to be when the sun is very strong in the summer, so solar power matches very well with air conditioning load. The rest of the united states has weather, so situations like the-dead-of-winter + no-sunshine might be a better fit for fossil fuels.

dheera 5y ago

If they had controlled COVID early enough the economic losses could have quite possibly allowed for everyone to have solar already.

toomuchtodo 5y ago

It’s the future actually. https://www.tesla.com/en_au/support/energy/savpp-faqs https://www.tesla.com/en_au/support/energy/savpp-faqs (South Australia Virtual Power Plant FAQs) https://www.utilitydive.com/news/teslas-australian-virtual-power-plant-propped-up-grid-during-coal-outage/568812/ https://www.utilitydive.com/news/teslas-australian-virtual-p... (Tesla's Australian virtual power plant propped up grid during coal outage) > Once complete, the VPP will include 50,000 houses fitted with 5 kW rooftop solar systems and 13.5 kWh Tesla batteries. Together, they will be capable of delivering up to 250 MW of solar power and 650 MWh of energy storage. > So far, less than 1,000 homes have been completed. Still, the aggregated storage was able to make a difference. With regards to Australian rooftop solar potential, it’s estimated at almost 179GW, roughly a bit more than 3.5x total current Australian generation capacity.

sokoloff 5y ago
What’s the ratio on a GWhr/year basis? 3.5x the peak power seems like it could easily be less on a total energy basis. Looking here, it seems like 1 GWp in Australia can yield around 1500GWh/year. A conventional plant running just 20 hours per day yields 7300 Wh/Wp/yr. https://www.solarchoice.net.au/blog/how-much-energy-will-my-solar-cells-produce/ https://www.solarchoice.net.au/blog/how-much-energy-will-my-...

jsight 5y ago

I don't think the person you are replying to had a good plan, but solar definitely could offset the energy consumed by cars. The average car will only consume ~12KWh per day. Even a small 3-4KW system can do that. Yes, its an oversimplification, but in a world where the problem is all the electric cars, you also have rolling battery buffers available whenever you want them. We already use hot water heaters and air conditioners in a similar way. Peak shaving with people's home charging setups wouldn't be hard to add.

sokoloff 5y ago
In normal times, my electric car is almost never at home when the sun is shining on my solar panels.
- dheera 5y ago
  So you feed the power to the grid and the grid charges your car at work.

m463 5y ago

I think the problem is that much energy policy originates from california, which has a relatively mild climate. Additionally in california, peak energy demand seems to be when the sun is very strong in the summer, so solar power matches very well with air conditioning load. The rest of the united states has weather, so situations like the-dead-of-winter + no-sunshine might be a better fit for fossil fuels.