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a. Yes, but you can easily put up solar+batteries such that the cost of retail energy to the consumer is entirely transmission line rental, at which point disru
by nicwilson 4y ago
a. Yes, but you can easily put up solar+batteries such that the cost of retail energy to the consumer is entirely transmission line rental, at which point disruption is worth whatever the cost of line rental is minus the capital cost of grid construction.
> It’s possible to sell power to the utility for a reasonable price per MWh. But one can’t easily sell to the utility’s customers.
You might not be able to sell energy directly to them, but you can sell/lease energy generation to them which is essentially the same thing. You won't be able to charge the line rental that makes up the majority of the retail cost post installation of solar, but you can start with some fraction of the difference between they save with the solar system, which is probably at a better price point than wholesale cost of electricity.
- nine_k 4y agoGood thing everybody lives in Arizona and Sahara, and nobody lives in Sweden, Canada, or even in Seattle! /s Sadly, sun is not universally abundant.
- Gwypaas 4y agoBut HVDC lines are. The longest one in operation today is ~2200 km.
- nine_k 4y agoI wonder how their upkeep and bulging expense (especially across difficult terrain) compares to that of the small nuclear power plant described here. We could determine the distance when the HVDC line still makes more sense.
- Gwypaas 4y agoFor true "wilderness" your total addressable market is like a million people. Sweden and Norway have abundant hydro power so they actually export power from north to south. So reduce that to tens of thousands. For southern scandinavia it is already connected through HVDC to Central Europe and more are being built. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumpolar_peoples https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumpolar_peoples https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Circle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Circle
- pjc50 4y agoNobody knows what this reactor is going to cost yet, the first one has not been completed ..
- nicwilson 4y agoTrue, but consider that most of southern Asia, Oceania, Africa and central America the sun is abundant. That covers a lot of people.
- cplusplusfellow 4y agoNow we just need a bunch of these reactors to power the desalination plants to support all the folks living in the desert.
- jmopp 4y agoThe Netherlands is about as sunny as Seattle, and it's possible to break even after a few years with a decent-sized solar array on your roof.
- stjohnswarts 4y agoJeesh, how expensive is power there? It would take me almost 15 years to get my money back on a solar/battery combo that is big enough to generally supply my electricity needs if I was at 100%.
- hcknwscommenter 4y agoYour payback would be a lot faster without a battery I think. At least that is the case where I live (US/East).
- jmopp 4y agoCurrently paying around €90 for ~250KWh per month. That is about 4 times what I used to pay in South Africa 5 years ago.
- jphsnsir 4y agoIn Belgium we're at €0,50/kwh We're ordering 36 panels and 10kw battery tomorrow. The only sad thing is that we can't utlize the battery when we lose netpower. Huawei has an addition, but it only gives an outlet on the battery. I wanted inline, like my ups.