3 ms·

> the company in charge of the grid refuse to give any compensations. The grid is expensive to maintain and it isn't there to deliver solar power the other way

by rr808 4y ago

> the company in charge of the grid refuse to give any compensations. The grid is expensive to maintain and it isn't there to deliver solar power the other way, there is no reason why it would compensate you. Next when Solar is generating the wholesale price is usually low, so really you shouldn't get paid much anyway. The final problem with Solar in Northern countries is that in cold Winter nights you want to get power from the grid and use the infrastructure which most of the year now doesn't make any money. So either you should pay very high electricity prices in those periods ie several Euro/kwH (which isn't politically acceptable) or realistically solar should be restricted in the first place. Lol if you're going to downvote me, tell me why residential solar deserves to get paid as much as it is.

ZeroGravitas 4y ago
https://www.nrel.gov/state-local-tribal/basics-value-of-solar-tariffs.html https://www.nrel.gov/state-local-tribal/basics-value-of-sola... Has some useful info.
- rr808 4y ago
  > compensated for solar PV generation at a separate VOS rate in dollars per kilowatt hour ($/kWh). The VOS rate accounts for solar PV's benefits to stakeholders net its costs. Yes this is what is needed. The problem with Northern Europe is that the VOS would be so tiny people wouldn't bother.
  - ZeroGravitas 4y ago
    I'm not sure why you think that. Germany literally puts out tenders for rooftop solar and businesses bid to provide it. Why would they be going to all the bother of buying it if it had no value?
    - rr808 4y ago
      Germany has a real problem as it doesn't have much nuclear, its main generation is still coal! Basically its desperate for any electricity at any price. https://app.electricitymaps.com/zone/DE https://app.electricitymaps.com/zone/DE. The solar farms (incl rooftop) is much better than households as you can build/use bigger transmission lines to those locations. Belgium has a lot of Nuclear so not such a big problem. Its still burning gas though so more solar would help. Again farms are easier rather than residential houses who expect to get paid 10c/kwH on a sunny day in May.
ericd 4y ago
Load shifting is a thing. Create the conditions for solar overproduction, and we will adapt to use it. Hot water production can be done primarily during the day. Thermostats can treat houses as thermal batteries. And batteries will likely become a lot more common. A single night’s worth of battery storage doesn’t add all that much to the cost of a house. 30 kWh of lithium iron phosphate batteries can be had for $10k.
- rr808 4y ago
  Yes but you can't load shift over seasons. The OP is in Belgium, in Winter solar is not strong enough during the day to charge your batteries to get you through the night.
  - ericd 4y ago
    Right, the point is that overprovisioning solar is not a bad thing, and that it shouldn’t be restricted. Not saying that it’s sufficient on its own. Unless it somehow became so cheap that it was reasonable to overbuild to an extreme, and we had good energy sinks for peak times. If we became serious about direct air capture, for example, there might be an argument for it.

by rr808 4y ago

ZeroGravitas 4y ago

https://www.nrel.gov/state-local-tribal/basics-value-of-solar-tariffs.html https://www.nrel.gov/state-local-tribal/basics-value-of-sola... Has some useful info.

rr808 4y ago
> compensated for solar PV generation at a separate VOS rate in dollars per kilowatt hour ($/kWh). The VOS rate accounts for solar PV's benefits to stakeholders net its costs. Yes this is what is needed. The problem with Northern Europe is that the VOS would be so tiny people wouldn't bother.
- ZeroGravitas 4y ago
  I'm not sure why you think that. Germany literally puts out tenders for rooftop solar and businesses bid to provide it. Why would they be going to all the bother of buying it if it had no value?
  - rr808 4y ago
    Germany has a real problem as it doesn't have much nuclear, its main generation is still coal! Basically its desperate for any electricity at any price. https://app.electricitymaps.com/zone/DE https://app.electricitymaps.com/zone/DE. The solar farms (incl rooftop) is much better than households as you can build/use bigger transmission lines to those locations. Belgium has a lot of Nuclear so not such a big problem. Its still burning gas though so more solar would help. Again farms are easier rather than residential houses who expect to get paid 10c/kwH on a sunny day in May.

ericd 4y ago

Load shifting is a thing. Create the conditions for solar overproduction, and we will adapt to use it. Hot water production can be done primarily during the day. Thermostats can treat houses as thermal batteries. And batteries will likely become a lot more common. A single night’s worth of battery storage doesn’t add all that much to the cost of a house. 30 kWh of lithium iron phosphate batteries can be had for $10k.

rr808 4y ago
Yes but you can't load shift over seasons. The OP is in Belgium, in Winter solar is not strong enough during the day to charge your batteries to get you through the night.
- ericd 4y ago
  Right, the point is that overprovisioning solar is not a bad thing, and that it shouldn’t be restricted. Not saying that it’s sufficient on its own. Unless it somehow became so cheap that it was reasonable to overbuild to an extreme, and we had good energy sinks for peak times. If we became serious about direct air capture, for example, there might be an argument for it.