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Solar where I live is very scammy. Salespeople who sell you the world and then your panels don't deliver, and the company is impossible to contact (or gone) [0]

Solar where I live is very scammy. Salespeople who sell you the world and then your panels don't deliver, and the company is impossible to contact (or gone) [0] Then there is the issue that there is no battery mandate, which to me is insane. In sunny, warmer states we have an oversupply of energy during the day, and then when the sun sets we have a shortage as everybody comes home, and their AC needs to work harder, and people start cooking with electricity. So basically when you put on panels without a battery you're making it harder for everybody. You're using the grid as a battery. [0] https://www.npr.org/2024/08/14/1244330369/solar-rooftop-panels-environment-fraud-deception https://www.npr.org/2024/08/14/1244330369/solar-rooftop-pane...

bityard 2y ago
I thought utilities were starting to install battery farms these days? If the technology is there, I'd much rather the utility own, operate, maintain them. In most residences, I see a big battery strapped to a house as something of a liability.
mjamesaustin 2y ago
The more solar surplus we create, the more incentive there is to build battery storage. You can see it happening in California, where storage has grown massively year over year, to the point where it's now displacing natural gas peaker plants as a primary source of meeting after-sunset evening energy demand.
- deleted 2y ago
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stronglikedan 2y ago
The grid is a battery. That's one of the benefits of going solar. It's not making anything harder for anyone.
- kspacewalk2 2y ago
  Can you elaborate what you mean by that? The grid is a battery on a scale of one household connecting to this infinite supply or infinite sink of electricity, but on a wider scale (and physical world as opposed to accounting) , you generate energy during the day and someone else needs to generate it at night, so it's in no way a battery.
interactivecode 2y ago
with all that output during the day, we might be able to revisit less "efficient" uses of energy like desalination plants that only make sense during the hours when energy is "free" because of overabundance.

bityard 2y ago

I thought utilities were starting to install battery farms these days? If the technology is there, I'd much rather the utility own, operate, maintain them. In most residences, I see a big battery strapped to a house as something of a liability.

mjamesaustin 2y ago

The more solar surplus we create, the more incentive there is to build battery storage. You can see it happening in California, where storage has grown massively year over year, to the point where it's now displacing natural gas peaker plants as a primary source of meeting after-sunset evening energy demand.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

stronglikedan 2y ago

The grid is a battery. That's one of the benefits of going solar. It's not making anything harder for anyone.

kspacewalk2 2y ago
Can you elaborate what you mean by that? The grid is a battery on a scale of one household connecting to this infinite supply or infinite sink of electricity, but on a wider scale (and physical world as opposed to accounting) , you generate energy during the day and someone else needs to generate it at night, so it's in no way a battery.

interactivecode 2y ago

with all that output during the day, we might be able to revisit less "efficient" uses of energy like desalination plants that only make sense during the hours when energy is "free" because of overabundance.