3 ms·

I wonder how many home/commercial/community solar systems (battery-backed or not) have the equipment needed to (a) generate their own 60 Hz sine wave (of good-e

I wonder how many home/commercial/community solar systems (battery-backed or not) have the equipment needed to (a) generate their own 60 Hz sine wave (of good-enough quality to sync to the grid), (b) automatically disconnect from the grid when it loses its connection (to prevent backfeeding during outages), and (c) properly reconnect (including syncing) when the grid comes back. I remember, at least in the beginning, smaller systems were unable to provide their own sine wave, and would rely on the grid for that. And even today, if full net-metering were in place (with the possibility of export), I would expect the grid to still provide phase synchronization (when solar is not exporting), and a path to other consumers (when solar is exporting).

dgfitz 2y ago
The sine wave syncing is probably the only real issue. There have existed automated transfer switches for years and years. My FIL, when he lost power, would very loudly start a countdown from 60 to 0, where his system would kick over to natural gas via the detection of a power-loss event, via an automated transfer switch.
nostrademons 2y ago
Most of them, now. Enphase IQ8s have grid-forming capabilities since they came out in 2021 [1], and they're one of the major vendors. Same with the SolarEdge EnergyHub since 2020 [2], the other major U.S. vendor. Globally, Sungrow [3] and Huawei [4] both support grid-forming in their inverters, and their sales dwarf the U.S. manufacturers. If you relax condition a), it's an even larger percentage. I've got IQ7a's and a PowerWall (installed 2020) and they transparently switch over to battery whenever there's an outage and switch back. I just looked at my Tesla backup history and there've been 5 power outages in the last year, and I haven't noticed any of them. [1] https://newsroom.enphase.com/news-releases/news-release-details/enphase-energy-launches-iq8-industrys-first-microgrid-forming https://newsroom.enphase.com/news-releases/news-release-deta... [2] https://www.solaredge.com/fr/SolarEdge-enhances-solar-plus-storage-experience-with-launch-of-the-solaredge-energy-hub-inverter https://www.solaredge.com/fr/SolarEdge-enhances-solar-plus-s... [3] https://en.sungrowpower.com/upload/file/20211201/Grid%20Forming%20Whitepaper.pdf https://en.sungrowpower.com/upload/file/20211201/Grid%20Form... [4] https://solar.huawei.com/en/news-room/en/2023/news-20230523 https://solar.huawei.com/en/news-room/en/2023/news-20230523

dgfitz 2y ago

The sine wave syncing is probably the only real issue. There have existed automated transfer switches for years and years. My FIL, when he lost power, would very loudly start a countdown from 60 to 0, where his system would kick over to natural gas via the detection of a power-loss event, via an automated transfer switch.

nostrademons 2y ago

Most of them, now. Enphase IQ8s have grid-forming capabilities since they came out in 2021 [1], and they're one of the major vendors. Same with the SolarEdge EnergyHub since 2020 [2], the other major U.S. vendor. Globally, Sungrow [3] and Huawei [4] both support grid-forming in their inverters, and their sales dwarf the U.S. manufacturers. If you relax condition a), it's an even larger percentage. I've got IQ7a's and a PowerWall (installed 2020) and they transparently switch over to battery whenever there's an outage and switch back. I just looked at my Tesla backup history and there've been 5 power outages in the last year, and I haven't noticed any of them. [1] https://newsroom.enphase.com/news-releases/news-release-details/enphase-energy-launches-iq8-industrys-first-microgrid-forming https://newsroom.enphase.com/news-releases/news-release-deta... [2] https://www.solaredge.com/fr/SolarEdge-enhances-solar-plus-storage-experience-with-launch-of-the-solaredge-energy-hub-inverter https://www.solaredge.com/fr/SolarEdge-enhances-solar-plus-s... [3] https://en.sungrowpower.com/upload/file/20211201/Grid%20Forming%20Whitepaper.pdf https://en.sungrowpower.com/upload/file/20211201/Grid%20Form... [4] https://solar.huawei.com/en/news-room/en/2023/news-20230523 https://solar.huawei.com/en/news-room/en/2023/news-20230523