3 ms·

Why did you bury #3? Transmission and distribution aren't trivial. Under the right circumstances, people can get very attractive ROI periods, not to mention a

Why did you bury #3? Transmission and distribution aren't trivial. Under the right circumstances, people can get very attractive ROI periods, not to mention a degree of independence. I can't be the only one who learned from the Texas incident that our grids our metastable and one bad crash away from a multi-week outage. I can't be the only one who thought "F that, I want a plan B."

s1artibartfast 4y ago
Transmission requirements don't go away with rooftop solar. In fact, they become a huge sticking point. If customers need transmission at night, or even once a year, they still need all the infrastructure in place.
- ghostbrainalpha 4y ago
  Having a plan B, doesn't mean you completely abandon plan A. Would decide against having a spare tire on your car, just because your traditional 4 tires were still required?
  - s1artibartfast 4y ago
    That depends on if I have to pay for an entirely separate car to provide backup. I think there are a lot of valid arguments to have residential solar, but I'm just saying that the big picture economics aren't really there. You have to pay to maintain the commercial transmission and generating capacity, and then pay again for a more expensive redundant local system.
    - ZeroGravitas 4y ago
      Some grid operators will pay you to have a redundant local system, which suggests the economics do work: https://greenmountainpower.com/news/network-of-powerwall-batteries-delivers-first-in-new-england-benefit-for-customers/ https://greenmountainpower.com/news/network-of-powerwall-bat...
- ZeroGravitas 4y ago
  The cost of transmission is partly a factor of peak usage. Like if you build a highway and everyone commutes at exactly 9-5 then that dictates how many lanes you need. In places with air-con, the distributed solar reduces the peak on a daily and yearly basis. Distributed batteries also help with this. In grid lingo these are called "non-wires alternatives" or "non-transmission alternatives" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-wires_alternatives https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-wires_alternatives

s1artibartfast 4y ago

Transmission requirements don't go away with rooftop solar. In fact, they become a huge sticking point. If customers need transmission at night, or even once a year, they still need all the infrastructure in place.

ghostbrainalpha 4y ago
Having a plan B, doesn't mean you completely abandon plan A. Would decide against having a spare tire on your car, just because your traditional 4 tires were still required?
- s1artibartfast 4y ago
  That depends on if I have to pay for an entirely separate car to provide backup. I think there are a lot of valid arguments to have residential solar, but I'm just saying that the big picture economics aren't really there. You have to pay to maintain the commercial transmission and generating capacity, and then pay again for a more expensive redundant local system.
  - ZeroGravitas 4y ago
    Some grid operators will pay you to have a redundant local system, which suggests the economics do work: https://greenmountainpower.com/news/network-of-powerwall-batteries-delivers-first-in-new-england-benefit-for-customers/ https://greenmountainpower.com/news/network-of-powerwall-bat...
ZeroGravitas 4y ago
The cost of transmission is partly a factor of peak usage. Like if you build a highway and everyone commutes at exactly 9-5 then that dictates how many lanes you need. In places with air-con, the distributed solar reduces the peak on a daily and yearly basis. Distributed batteries also help with this. In grid lingo these are called "non-wires alternatives" or "non-transmission alternatives" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-wires_alternatives https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-wires_alternatives