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I'm originally from the UK so I know cloudy. Not sure if we're better or worse than Michigan but the weather is one of the main reasons I left. For sure solar

I'm originally from the UK so I know cloudy. Not sure if we're better or worse than Michigan but the weather is one of the main reasons I left. For sure solar isn't as effective in the UK but we're lucky to have shallow sea nearby for offshore wind (onshore wind being opposed by the same kind of NIMBY clowns that are a true biblical plague in every country). But if solar is cheap enough you may as well deploy it even where it's not especially efficient. Then you can start to look at things like transmission lines or whatever energy source works best for your area. Edit: it's a reasonable point that dollars spent in the 2nd cloudiest state on solar aren't particularly well spent, but that leaves you with 48(?) less cloudy states. While CA is pretty south there are 10 more states to the south of it, one of them is even called the sunshine state and is effectively an uninhabitable sinking swamp, ideal for solar!

philipkglass 1y ago
There's a good article here showing how solar, gas, and battery storage work together in the UK: https://electrotechrevolution.substack.com/p/renewables-allow-us-to-pay-less-not https://electrotechrevolution.substack.com/p/renewables-allo... The whole thing is worth reading, but this is the most interesting result: Let's push the boundaries further and see how much solar we can get in the system without exceeding the 100% gas case’s £76/MWh. Playing with the numbers we find that installing 6.5 GW of solar and 12 GWh of battery storage alongside our 1 GW gas plant, we can get to the result plotted below... Solar now accounts for over 70% of total generation. During the summer basically all electricity now comes from solar. This system costs the same £76/MWh as the 100% gas case. Remarkably, a combination of 1 GW of gas, 6.5 GW of solar, and 12 GWh of battery storage can achieve the same overall system cost as installing just 1 GW of gas. The lowest-cost scenario has much less solar, but not 100% gas either: Solar energy now accounts for over a quarter of total generation, while the total system costs £9/MWh less than just using gas. You can modestly decarbonize a gas-driven electricity system with solar and save a modest amount of money, or keep costs constant and deeply (though not completely) decarbonize the same system with solar and batteries, even in the relatively sunlight-poor UK.

philipkglass 1y ago

There's a good article here showing how solar, gas, and battery storage work together in the UK: https://electrotechrevolution.substack.com/p/renewables-allow-us-to-pay-less-not https://electrotechrevolution.substack.com/p/renewables-allo... The whole thing is worth reading, but this is the most interesting result: Let's push the boundaries further and see how much solar we can get in the system without exceeding the 100% gas case’s £76/MWh. Playing with the numbers we find that installing 6.5 GW of solar and 12 GWh of battery storage alongside our 1 GW gas plant, we can get to the result plotted below... Solar now accounts for over 70% of total generation. During the summer basically all electricity now comes from solar. This system costs the same £76/MWh as the 100% gas case. Remarkably, a combination of 1 GW of gas, 6.5 GW of solar, and 12 GWh of battery storage can achieve the same overall system cost as installing just 1 GW of gas. The lowest-cost scenario has much less solar, but not 100% gas either: Solar energy now accounts for over a quarter of total generation, while the total system costs £9/MWh less than just using gas. You can modestly decarbonize a gas-driven electricity system with solar and save a modest amount of money, or keep costs constant and deeply (though not completely) decarbonize the same system with solar and batteries, even in the relatively sunlight-poor UK.