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This is obviously a big gift to the grid utilities. It is also the beginning of the death spiral of grid power. If I'm living there and planning to install so
by toss1 5y ago
This is obviously a big gift to the grid utilities.
It is also the beginning of the death spiral of grid power.
If I'm living there and planning to install solar, it was previously convenient and a good deal to connect to the grid and do net-metering, where you were typically paid at the end of the year for the surplus electricity you added to the grid. This was even a good deal with the extra costs of grid-tied inverters, etc.
Now, for a 30kw system, that's $240/month or $2880/year. That looks to me like a nice ROI to just go with a big PowerWall or other battery system and dump the grid.
Continuing cost declines for the equipment will only make the deal better as time goes on.
Every person who stops seeing it that way stops supporting the economics of grid distribution of power.
As fewer households are on the grid, it gets more expensive to maintain, and costs more for the remaining users.
Those increasing costs and declining quality drive more users to go off the grid...
I can also see neighborhood grids, pooling only local generation and storage possibly becoming more useful.
Pretty soon, the grid is unsustainable. I don't think it'll be sad to see it go.
- simplyaccont 5y agoa couple of fine points - you need a lot of batteries to get through a couple of weeks of cloudy weather. or generator - in california it might be kinda illegal to disconnect from grid (violation of building codes and such: https://www.cailaw.org/media/files/IEL/Publications/2016/grid-detection-vol10no1.pdf https://www.cailaw.org/media/files/IEL/Publications/2016/gri...
- toss1 5y agoExcellent points - thx!. Comments... >>you need a lot of batteries to get through a couple of weeks of cloudy weather. or generator Yes a generator would definitely help, and even with cloudy weather you get a portion of power generated. Mostly for off-grid, you'd just have to size bigger for x% generation on cloudy days. >>in california it might be kinda illegal to disconnect from grid (violation of building codes and such: https://www.cailaw.org/media/files/IEL/Publications/2016/gri https://www.cailaw.org/media/files/IEL/Publications/2016/gri... That is a real kick in the guts: "requirement of interconnection in residential installations". Especially considering the quote at the beginning: "Some authors have found that a subset of customers in Hawaii may already be better off disconnecting from the grid and relying on solar-plus-battery systems; moreover, California is not far behind". Sounds like another gift to the utilities. I'd bet there will be lawsuits to introduce a reasonable exception soon. Especially if the $8/month/kw capacity withstands the comment period. This is utter bulls*t if California actually claims to have increasing solar capacity as a goal. Just disgusting.
- rytcio 5y agoToo bad California is also banning generators https://rvmiles.com/california-generator-ban/ https://rvmiles.com/california-generator-ban/
- toss1 5y agoAny info on whether it is just 2-cycle engines? (iirc, that's what I remember from earlier articles, but...) They should certainly ban 2-cycle engines to drive to batteries, but I think most stationary rigs for houses are 4-cycle, so you don't need oil mix.
- simplyaccont 5y agothis is small gasoline generators. usually when house has backup generator i believe it hooked up to gas
- hedora 5y agoIt might be illegal to install a setup without connecting it to the utility’s electric meter, but what if the utility disconnects it due to (for example) the customer requesting account cancellation, or refusing to pay bills? Wouldn’t the result be a legal off-grid system that’s a small reconnection fee away from being attached to the grid (connection to utilities is generally required in order to get a mortgage, so having the right to reconnect is important).