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Yeah - you can’t talk about renewable energy generation without also considering when it is generated. Then future price of energy will be incredibly time depe
by leoedin 1y ago
Yeah - you can’t talk about renewable energy generation without also considering when it is generated.
Then future price of energy will be incredibly time dependent. Finding a way to generate at a different time than everyone else - whether by east/west panels or time shifting with batteries or building a different kind of renewable generation is where all the big profits will be.
- yummypaint 1y agoDemand isn't fixed in time either, though. Industrial processes that presently run at night to use cheap power will switch to daytime when it makes sense to do so. Summer mid-day also has the highest electricity demand all year in many places due to air conditioning, so arguably solar is addressing one of the biggest stress points.
- ericd 1y agoNot an expert, but my understanding is that the challenge there is that a big cost in industrial production is the initial capital outlay for the equipment, and oftentimes to pay that back reasonably, you need to run the equipment nonstop. Also, some processes are challenging to stop/start.
- hinkley 1y agoThis has been my understanding as well. But on the plus side, while you may run a machine all day, the price of cooling your equipment varies with the outside temperature and that is highly correlated with available renewable power. The AC units and diesel backup power are systems you buy and prefer to have idle. But not your press or data center.
- WillPostForFood 1y ago"summer mid-day also has the highest electricity demand all year in many places due to air conditioning," Peak electric demand is 3-7pm in the summer. You might think you could then just set panels to to optimize for afternoon, but especially in winter, you get a big peak between 6-9am.
- distances 1y agoTotally depends on the location. Say, Northern Europe has traditionally very little AC (changing thanks to dual use heat pumps) and the energy use naturally peaks at the depths of the winter.
- Aerroon 1y agoWhat if you manually adjust them based on the season?
- solardev 1y agoIn the West, the cost of labor makes that unappealing. From a DIY standpoint it'd still be a pain. Those things are heavy and usually require at least 2 to 4 people to install or move. It's not something you'd want to do regularly if avoidable.
- Aerroon 1y agoI see. I imagined then being panels on like a hinge that you like unbolt, tilt a little and then bolt down again. I didn't know it would take multiple people to do it.
- solardev 1y agoYeah, you could maybe design something like that. It'd still be quite a lot of work to go through all the panels one at a time every few months, though. And doing the math to remember what angle to point them at would be annoying and error prone.
- Aerroon 1y agoCouldn't you tilt different panels at different angles for a few days to measure their output and then go with the one that performed the best?
- philjohn 1y agoIt already is on wholesale markets - in the UK you can get on Agile Octopus which gives you half hourly prices. When there is a glut of renewables on the grid you can end up being paid to use energy. This highlights the need for grid scale storage (be it batteries, pumped hydro or something else) to balance Solar PV, and to bridge gaps when the wind isn't blowing.