41–50 of 154 posts
Same for South Africa. Thanks to the grid being severely mismanaged upper middle class and beyond are installing home solar where possible to maintain some semblance of normalcy
But if you can't get the energy to the consumer because of theft, then only people who can afford it and have space can use it.
I hail from a Tier 3 city in India [a]. Due to mismgmt. or exorbitant electricity prices, several folks would end up stealing electricity from the main line. Electricity distribution companies would keep on increasing prices to make up for lost revenue from stealing. On other hand, stealing kept on increasing. In recent years, huge chunk of public have pivoted to installing solar panels for water heater etc. When I w…
I have never heard that before, cities like Ranchi can hardly be described as "Tier 1". The HRA classification given on the Wikipedia page[1] is much better guide to what my intuitions are on what people mean by tier 1-3.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Indian_cit...
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They do this in Israel too. The solar powered hot water heaters work wonderfully. However now with many more highrises being built they no longer are as popular and we are forced to use electric heaters.
Unlike Lebanon, though, one cannot legally operate their solar panels to power a home while the electric grid is down in Israel. From what I understand, the Lebanese are used to working around the failings of their government in all aspects of life: work, shopping, now banking, and even education where possible. I don't know about water supplies or roads, but from what I heard the Lebanese view their government more…
That’s fascinating! Can you say more?
This article kind of has the: “Obesity rates are plummeting as cancer rates increase” feel to it. Basically, a really shitty situation is driving something that you are seeing as good. Lebanon at this point is pretty close to a failed state. The solar power boom is basically the populace losing faith in the government to provide basic infrastructure.
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Unlike Lebanon, though, one cannot legally operate their solar panels to power a home while the electric grid is down in Israel. From what I understand, the Lebanese are used to working around the failings of their government in all aspects of life: work, shopping, now banking, and even education where possible. I don't know about water supplies or roads, but from what I heard the Lebanese view their government more…
> Unlike Lebanon, though, one cannot legally operate their solar panels to power a home while the electric grid is down in Israel. That’s fascinating! Can you say more?
It's likely a safety issue in the case of grid-connected solar installations. These panels are designed to send excess electricity to the grid, and if the grid is down, the utility needs to make sure that busted cables are not carrying electricity... for the safety of the repairmen.
https://www.cnet.com/home/energy-and-utilities/do-blackouts-...
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Unlike Lebanon, though, one cannot legally operate their solar panels to power a home while the electric grid is down in Israel. From what I understand, the Lebanese are used to working around the failings of their government in all aspects of life: work, shopping, now banking, and even education where possible. I don't know about water supplies or roads, but from what I heard the Lebanese view their government more…
> Unlike Lebanon, though, one cannot legally operate their solar panels to power a home while the electric grid is down in Israel. That’s fascinating! Can you say more?
In case the main grid goes off, your equipment is supposed to stop working so that it doesn't feed power backwards into the grid while some person is trying to fix whatever broke, so unless you have a battery/UPS and a large switch to flip, your solar panels "die" along with the grid.
The alternative would be to have totally separated panels, but many opt in to selling excess back, since it gets more and more profitable as prices go up.
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They do this in Israel too. The solar powered hot water heaters work wonderfully. However now with many more highrises being built they no longer are as popular and we are forced to use electric heaters.
Unlike Lebanon, though, one cannot legally operate their solar panels to power a home while the electric grid is down in Israel. From what I understand, the Lebanese are used to working around the failings of their government in all aspects of life: work, shopping, now banking, and even education where possible. I don't know about water supplies or roads, but from what I heard the Lebanese view their government more…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Unlike Lebanon, though, one cannot legally operate their solar panels to power a home while the electric grid is down in Israel. That’s fascinating! Can you say more?
In Sweden the same applies, at least if you have panels that can feed back excess into the grid for payment. In case the main grid goes off, your equipment is supposed to stop working so that it doesn't feed power backwards into the grid while some person is trying to fix whatever broke, so unless you have a battery/UPS and a large switch to flip, your solar panels "die" along with the grid. The alternative would be…
Totally separated solar panels would also mean you barely have any electricity on that circuit for half of the year.
Another option is an inverter that can sense the net and switch that flip automatically, but they are more expensive and still not legal everywhere because it's not really needed in Western European countries.
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> Unlike Lebanon, though, one cannot legally operate their solar panels to power a home while the electric grid is down in Israel. That’s fascinating! Can you say more?
Not the parent. It's likely a safety issue in the case of grid-connected solar installations. These panels are designed to send excess electricity to the grid, and if the grid is down, the utility needs to make sure that busted cables are not carrying electricity... for the safety of the repairmen. https://www.cnet.com/home/energy-and-utilities/do-blackouts-...
Nearly half of Lebanon's national debt of $85 billion has been spent on the electricity sector and the state can now only provide 2 hours of electricity per day, thus the solar power boom. A much more interesting piece than I expected, though I will note that some European countries have been hard hit in the energy sector of late as well, what with France rationing power this winter, for example. Edit: Let me once ag…
Said like that it sounds like rolling blackout and the state enforcing energy consumption at gun point.
There was a lot of noise because the government planned some of these things. But in practice it meant reducing the temperature of public swimming pools a bit, reducing/shutting down public lighting deep in the night, reducing temperatures in office building by one or two degrees.
I would even say this "stressor" will be beneficial, at least at a local level.
The real downside is the increased energy bill for people.
Finally, a large part of this issue is self-inflicted as a failure to plan power plants maintenance.