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Thank you for the links, looking forward to diving in. > You export excess solar when overproducing, and then can pull that kWh back from an energy source that
by HDThoreaun 4y ago
Thank you for the links, looking forward to diving in.
> You export excess solar when overproducing, and then can pull that kWh back from an energy source that can be stored.
Well the issue is that storing energy is expensive. Electricity is much cheaper to generate during the day because solar is such an economical way to generate electricity, but it's much more expensive at night. 1 kwh during the day != 1 kwh at night, so it doesn't make a ton of sense to allow grid users to trade day usage for night usage. There are definitely upsides to distributed solar, but I can't see how it doesn't end up in a state of "rich people install enough solar to have 0 net usage and poor people need to pick up the slack so that utility profits don't fall." And make no mistake, utility profits will not fall. They're a government regulated monopoly, their profits are essentially locked in unless something catastrophic happens (which to be fair has been happening to pg&e, but that's separate).
- thatguy0900 4y agoIsn't it the case that electricity is cheaper at night because of lower overall usage? Wouldn't that make trading peak daytime electricity for nighttime electricity worth it?
- HDThoreaun 4y agoFor a variety of reasons, no. At least in california demand is lowest around noon-3 and highest around dinner time to 10. https://www.caiso.com/TodaysOutlook/Pages/default.aspx https://www.caiso.com/TodaysOutlook/Pages/default.aspx
- thatguy0900 4y agoInteresting, thanks. Crazy I had it completely backwards.
- magnetic 4y agoThis is super interesting and surprising. Can you please elaborate on what those reasons are?
- ec109685 4y agoIf it's cheaper to generate during the day, the market rate should reflect that.
- HDThoreaun 4y agoIt does. Retail and wholesale prices are both lower during the day, but net metering cancels that out.
- magnetic 4y agoWhere do you live to have this rate schedule? In my neck of the woods (SoCal) the lowest rates for TOU (Time Of Use) are during the night (Super Off Peak, generally 12am to 6am). Most of the TOU plans are like this (see https://www.sdge.com/residential/pricing-plans/about-our-pricing-plans/whenmatters https://www.sdge.com/residential/pricing-plans/about-our-pri... )
- ec109685 4y agoNet metering is the grid paying retail for produced electricity. Peak electricity prices are from 4pm to 9pm, so there would be some benefits of using the battery to discharge then versus pushing it back onto the grid earlier times of the day. https://www.solarreviews.com/blog/california-net-metering-nem-2 https://www.solarreviews.com/blog/california-net-metering-ne...