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Solar will supply almost all growth in U.S. electricity generation through 2025

cleantechnica.com

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Re: Solar will supply almost all growth in U.S. electricity generation through 2025

#61

Post by olyjohn »

dylan604 wrote: post #21
dfxm12 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're already incentivized to do things like running the dishwasher in the evening do to costs, no? Or is the implication that it would be considerably even more cheap?

This is where I'm really intrigued of all-house battery packs like the Tesla Powerwall (it's the only name of one I'm familiar to call out). I like the idea that it charges at night during the lower rates, and during the day the house is powered from the battery. Just haven't seen any longevity reports on them in general vs brochure data.

Does this reduce your energy usage though? You're still using the same amount of power during the day. So it saves you money, and takes some load off the grid during peak usage. What does that do to reduce emissions from power generation? Without solar, you're still charging off the same infrastructure.

Re: Solar will supply almost all growth in U.S. electricity generation through 2025

#63

Post by pfdietz »

7thaccount wrote: post #39
Retric wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ramp up is inherently slow, we’re still generally seeing cheaper nighttime rates than daytime rates even after years of ‘heavy’ investment in solar. Solar’s impact on prices is going to remain fairly trivial for the next few years. But start looking 20 years out and a great deal of nighttime load will shift, which dramatically reduces the need for storage even as decades of X0 GW per year adds up. Aka it’s not ju…

The merit order effect of renewables like solar and wind has already been substantial on wholesale prices with the spot price being $0 or below $0 in significant percentages of the year. This probably hasn't trickled down to retail rates as we're stuck paying for the fixed costs of many of those assets via the PPAs that the utilities sign.

Thus the rapidly expanding introduction of storage, which can take advantage of those periods.

Re: Solar will supply almost all growth in U.S. electricity generation through 2025

#64

Post by ren_engineer »

I love having our energy grid being reliant on a geopolitical rival. I'm sure this won't end in disaster

>China makes 80% of global solar panels

>controls 95% of overall supply chain for solar

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/energy/china-to-dominate...

Re: Solar will supply almost all growth in U.S. electricity generation through 2025

#65

Post by pfdietz »

KptMarchewa wrote: post #5

Sadly, wind has much better capacity factor, and works during nights and winter.

Wind has a less aggressive experience curve than solar, so it's probably headed for secondary status in a renewable world. Places like India are probably going to get by with very little wind.

This is bad news for high latitude energy-intensive industries.

Re: Solar will supply almost all growth in U.S. electricity generation through 2025

#66

Post by olyjohn »

v4vvdq wrote: post #56
verisimi wrote: post #15

I don't get why solar is so popular. In more northern regions, you get much less light in the winter. You effectively can only generate around one tenth of the energy you can in the summer - this is from experience talking to others who monitor their solar installations. But, you need more energy in the winter. People are in more, using electricity for heat cos it's colder. I'm pointing out that there is a supply/dem…

In northern (and southern) regions the less light you get in winter, the more you get in summer. It is a zero-sum game.

You can't take the power you generate in the summer and use it to heat your house in the winter though.

Re: Solar will supply almost all growth in U.S. electricity generation through 2025

#67

Post by hammock »

Fauntleroy wrote: post #62
hammock wrote: post #23

Welcome to the future. https://media.sciencephoto.com/c0/47/01/29/c0470129-800px-wm...

1) That ain't even bad 2) There are better ways to integrate solar into communities

> 1) That ain't even bad

It's not exactly a step towards a 15-minute city, either

Re: Solar will supply almost all growth in U.S. electricity generation through 2025

#68

Post by soco »

JohnFen wrote: post #45
dfxm12 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're already incentivized to do things like running the dishwasher in the evening do to costs, no? Or is the implication that it would be considerably even more cheap?

> We're already incentivized to do things like running the dishwasher in the evening do to costs, no? Not where I live. Electricity costs the same here no matter what day or time of day it is.

My (Swiss, small) provider just got rid of differentiated pricing "for simplicity sake". On the other hand they continuously increase the solar installations, so I really don't get their point. But I'm not an economist so...

Re: Solar will supply almost all growth in U.S. electricity generation through 2025

#69

Post by gizmo686 »

tallowen wrote: post #27
dfxm12 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're already incentivized to do things like running the dishwasher in the evening do to costs, no? Or is the implication that it would be considerably even more cheap?

I think the implication is that we'll see a further split around pricing. One thing that stood out to me is that in the case of thermal loads (perhaps your dishwasher but more realistically a hotwater heater). It will become more worthwhile for that system to know when high and low electricity prices are and store more heat (i.e. hotwater) at low electricity prices and wait until prices fall again to refill it. In th…

My energy provider (BGE) used to offer a program where you could get a rebate in exchange for letting them control your hot water heater and/or thermostat. The HVAC portion is still running, but only for people who signed up prior to 2020. The water heater program has been completely stopped since 2021.

The good thing with both approaches is you don't need the appliance built to support it. For HVAC, the control system is in the thermostat, which is cheap and has a standard interface.

For waterheaters, you can just stick a relay in sequence with the heater.

Re: Solar will supply almost all growth in U.S. electricity generation through 2025

#70

Post by dylan604 »

Ajedi32 wrote: post #60
dylan604 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is where I'm really intrigued of all-house battery packs like the Tesla Powerwall (it's the only name of one I'm familiar to call out). I like the idea that it charges at night during the lower rates, and during the day the house is powered from the battery. Just haven't seen any longevity reports on them in general vs brochure data.

One thing to consider is that if that's profitable to do at house scale, then it's probably even more profitable to do at grid scale and you'll likely be out-competed by utility companies. Edit: Unless you're taking advantage of tax incentives to do it at house scale. Its hard to beat the economics of just being handed free money.

An individual can take action now whereas the grid scale action is molasses like. It's even worse when your state is not in the pocket of but the actual pocket of Big Oil
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