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A small addendum on the conclusions: - every household, can do that, _if_ they have a roof. appartment buildings may not have enough roof for all the people i
by pyrale 1y ago
A small addendum on the conclusions:
- every household, can do that, _if_ they have a roof. appartment buildings may not have enough roof for all the people in it.
- for those who can't access that, (that includes people, but also the industry, your mobile phone provider, etc.) prices will get worse.
- the fire brigade will love industrial-size battery fires in the neighbourhood.
- oezi 1y agoSolar and renewables in general are starting to reduce generation costs. So once the improvements in power transmission are done prices should come down for everyone.
- pyrale 1y agoSolar and renewables alone don't make a grid. You would also need grid-scale batteries, and the cost is not the same. The "improvements" in power transmission is about building more lines, these lines are not going to be significantly cheaper to maintain than previous generations, and if these investment/maintenance costs are shared among less, that means more expensive electricity. Currently, in my country, electricity transport and distribution are about one third of total cost.
- oezi 1y agoYou have to consider that electricity will be 3x over the next 50 years (for transportation and heating). So we are currently building out a lot of extra infrastructure. Grid scale batteries will also primarily reduce cost by offering arbitration.
- jszymborski 1y agoGermans seem to be rather fond of balcony solar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balcony_solar_power https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balcony_solar_power
- mynti 1y agoBalcony solar is absolute awesome in germany. I get about 30% return on investment per year on my small solar panel. Hard not to do it. I have no idea why it is still a little niche
- destitude 1y agoFor some reason in the USA there is only a single state that has approved that (Utah).
- dgacmu 1y agoIt conflicts with some of the NEC (national electric code) requirements. That all needs to get sorted out.
- rickydroll 1y agoThe NEC is also in conflict with homeowners performing simple electrical work, such as replacing switches and outlets.
- dgacmu 1y agoIt is. But in this case the conflict is more fundamental - the NEC has no provision for a circuit that has multiple electrical supplies.
- p1mrx 1y agoIf you have a circuit rated for 15 amps, and plug in 12 amps of solar, then the breaker won't trip until the circuit load exceeds 27 amps, which seems bad.
- adrianmonk 1y agoHmm, if you have an appliance (like a clothes dryer) with a dedicated circuit, it seems like you could solve this by connecting there. If you have the balcony solar device plug into the wall and the appliance plug into the balcony solar device, then you can easily put an additional circuit breaker where it's needed.
- destitude 1y agoYou forgot to mention anybody who has a yard that gets full sun can mount panels there as well. As far as fires you can say same thing about all the fires that currently occur because of propane, gas, and heating oil. Those have become some engrained in society for so long that you don't even think of that as a "fire hazard therefore you shouldn't even have it".
- pyrale 1y ago> You forgot to mention anybody who has a yard that gets full sun can mount panels there as well. The overlap with people who have their own solar-compatible roof is probably large.
- lostlogin 1y agoThe fire thing is funny with cars. If an EV burns, it’s important news. An ICE car burning is unremarkable.