Australia has so much solar that it's offering everyone free electricity

Post by jeffbee » Thu, Nov 06, 2025, 6:26 PM UTC

larusso wrote: post #98

I still wonder who came up with the charge your car during the day / use it as a batterie. I don’t have the luxury’s of owning two EVs that I can charge and use at the same time. If my car stand unused at home so I can charge it would mean I use it during the night? I understand that there could be useage pattern where someone works from home once or twice a week and waits with the charge during these peek hours. But…

Post by csours » Thu, Nov 06, 2025, 6:29 PM UTC

antonymoose wrote: post #74

teemur wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget Germany. If you look at the amount of PV built in Germany early this century and make some admittedly strong assumptions about learning curve, one could argue the Energiewende, then usually called failure, singlehandedly accelerated PV development by decades. I don't recall Germany ever credited on that.

I remember some old tidbit about the American westward expansion, most railroad projects failed and went bankrupt and were sold for pennies on the dollar to the ultimate owners. Something sad about that, really.

Post by vondur » Thu, Nov 06, 2025, 6:29 PM UTC

danans wrote: post #44

trollbridge wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And they actually charge you a fee if you generate. My brother in law unhooked from the grid because back feeding was charging him $100 a month. To give away power.

> And they actually charge you a fee if you generate. My brother in law unhooked from the grid because back feeding was charging him $100 a month. To give away power. Which utility and plan is this? I'm not aware of any California residential rate plans that charge you for putting power back on the grid, much less $100/month. That said, wholesale electricity rates are set by high frequency supply/demand markets. Rece…

Post by graemep » Thu, Nov 06, 2025, 6:33 PM UTC

bryanlarsen wrote: post #40

hangonhn wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really is a huge service not just to the developed world that needs to decarbonize but also a huge service to the developing world. Solar can be put up quickly and cheaply and is good for about 2 decades and can be paired with cheap LiFo batteries to give round the clock electricity. Both of these are relatively portable. It can really bootstrap the economies of local communities where infrastructure hasn't been b…

Starlink isn't necessary. In India you can get 1GB/day of cell phone data for $4/month, and other developing nations aren't far behind. The solar+battery revolution is doing for power what cell phones did for communications in the third world in the 90's and 2000's.

Post by ch4s3 » Thu, Nov 06, 2025, 6:35 PM UTC

RobinL wrote: post #21

ch4s3 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems like a great way to encourage the behavior you want, which is conserving when energy is emitting more carbon by shifting consumption. Do your laundry, charge a car, charge a whole house batter, run laundry, crank the AC, run your own aluminum smelter, whatever.

In the UK, you can go on an agile tariff that does exactly this. I'm on one. It's quite fun (and educational) with the kids to work out when to put the car on to charge, when to run the dryer etc, looking at the few days ahead forecasts. Last month, we paid 11p per kWh on average, which is less than half what you'd pay on a standard tariff, and it's nice to be doing something good for the environment too. It's partic…