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Who would have thought “solar is producing way too much power” would be a problem that power companies have the legal ability to complain about... I’m shaking

Who would have thought “solar is producing way too much power” would be a problem that power companies have the legal ability to complain about... I’m shaking my head over here. 2 years.. They could have gotten together with the public to lobby for their ability to sell power to other places, or built some type of power-intensive value producer (desalination? hydrogen?).. They could be far richer than if they just sell power to residences.

CyanLite2 4y ago
The power co's have a legal monopoly and in the vast majority of states the commission that regulates these utilities have members that are open bought-and-paid for by the utilities. Thus, they'll never realistically stand a chance unless someone came along with a bigger checkbook. There aren't many companies that want to get into the power business these days that have billions of dollars and the know-how to operate power plants and all the distribution to reach nearly every home. However, this is ripe for disrupting like Uber did by skirting laws in many areas. Could it possibly be legal to 'provide' power and create a residential subdivision with a microgrid and the price is part of the sale of the house?
- dwiel 4y ago
  It is possible you could get away with that in some places, but everywhere I've lived in the US, it is illegal to sell electricity to your neighbors. The only way around it I've seen is to give it away for free, but it is hard to build a scalable business around that.
  - prvit 4y ago
    You could always structure it like http://duuber.com/ http://duuber.com/ If it works for drug dealers, perhaps it can work for electricity? :)
- technofiend 4y ago
  Now that solar panels are trending down in price it seems IMHO the real disruption will be when batteries similarly become cheap enough that homeowners may disconnect completely from the grid or at least make solar the majority of their energy supply. If that happens energy companies will at that point be lobbying to force endusers to stay on grid to continue subsidizing maintenance. We aren't at that tipping point yet but with large tax breaks coming for EV ownership, an EV vehicle also makes a great way to dump "excess" solar power. Enough so that gas stations will start disappearing over the next few decades as well. Again, IMHO. If batteries get cheap enough it might make sense for an entrepreneur to sell or lease solar+battery+charger to people who want to sublet part of their property, crowd sourcing EV charging.
  - joshspankit 4y ago
    In many cases (and more by the day as companies lobby for it) it’s actually illegal for homeowners to be disconnected from the grid. I mention it here because it’s important to watch out for these types of laws and vote as neccessary
  - CyanLite2 4y ago
    >Now that solar panels are trending down in price it seems IMHO the real disruption will be when batteries similarly become cheap enough that homeowners may disconnect completely from the grid or at least make solar the majority of their energy supply. I think we're there now. You can get "server-rack" LiFePO4 batteries for about $1500 for a 5kWh battery. You can probably get solar, inverters, and 30kWh of batteries for about $25,000 and this should last maybe a few days for most homes. Mini-splits instead of central HVACs reduce power consumption a good bit, and have better energy efficiencies.
tomatotomato37 4y ago
The worst part is that it implies that the local grid is also undersized for a major power draw (Heatwave/Blizzard) since as the AC grid is essentially bi-directional the solar would have to both surpass that after the base draw of the regular buildings before the overvoltage start causing problems I mean unless your on nuclear or something that takes entire days to throttle up or down in which case congratulations you are now on a 100% green grid

CyanLite2 4y ago

The power co's have a legal monopoly and in the vast majority of states the commission that regulates these utilities have members that are open bought-and-paid for by the utilities. Thus, they'll never realistically stand a chance unless someone came along with a bigger checkbook. There aren't many companies that want to get into the power business these days that have billions of dollars and the know-how to operate power plants and all the distribution to reach nearly every home. However, this is ripe for disrupting like Uber did by skirting laws in many areas. Could it possibly be legal to 'provide' power and create a residential subdivision with a microgrid and the price is part of the sale of the house?

dwiel 4y ago
It is possible you could get away with that in some places, but everywhere I've lived in the US, it is illegal to sell electricity to your neighbors. The only way around it I've seen is to give it away for free, but it is hard to build a scalable business around that.
- prvit 4y ago
  You could always structure it like http://duuber.com/ http://duuber.com/ If it works for drug dealers, perhaps it can work for electricity? :)
technofiend 4y ago
Now that solar panels are trending down in price it seems IMHO the real disruption will be when batteries similarly become cheap enough that homeowners may disconnect completely from the grid or at least make solar the majority of their energy supply. If that happens energy companies will at that point be lobbying to force endusers to stay on grid to continue subsidizing maintenance. We aren't at that tipping point yet but with large tax breaks coming for EV ownership, an EV vehicle also makes a great way to dump "excess" solar power. Enough so that gas stations will start disappearing over the next few decades as well. Again, IMHO. If batteries get cheap enough it might make sense for an entrepreneur to sell or lease solar+battery+charger to people who want to sublet part of their property, crowd sourcing EV charging.
- joshspankit 4y ago
  In many cases (and more by the day as companies lobby for it) it’s actually illegal for homeowners to be disconnected from the grid. I mention it here because it’s important to watch out for these types of laws and vote as neccessary
- CyanLite2 4y ago
  >Now that solar panels are trending down in price it seems IMHO the real disruption will be when batteries similarly become cheap enough that homeowners may disconnect completely from the grid or at least make solar the majority of their energy supply. I think we're there now. You can get "server-rack" LiFePO4 batteries for about $1500 for a 5kWh battery. You can probably get solar, inverters, and 30kWh of batteries for about $25,000 and this should last maybe a few days for most homes. Mini-splits instead of central HVACs reduce power consumption a good bit, and have better energy efficiencies.

tomatotomato37 4y ago

The worst part is that it implies that the local grid is also undersized for a major power draw (Heatwave/Blizzard) since as the AC grid is essentially bi-directional the solar would have to both surpass that after the base draw of the regular buildings before the overvoltage start causing problems I mean unless your on nuclear or something that takes entire days to throttle up or down in which case congratulations you are now on a 100% green grid