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US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

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Re: US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

#101

Post by quickthrowman »

bob1029 wrote: post #87
quickthrowman wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Large solar sites are required to be able to provide reactive power as well as maintain a power factor of 0.95 to avoid all of the issues you mentioned. Reddit post by an EE explaining it better than I can: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskEngineers/comments/qhear9/commen... > There are also factors like fault current handling that HN might think is trivial or to be glossed over, but without the ability to eat 10x+ rated…

Reactive power handling concerns are in addition to the issues I described. Not equivalent to them.

Gotcha, I think I understand now.

The lack of rotating mass in a solar site means the rest of the spinning mass of the generators needs to compensate to maintain frequency and voltage, right? So when clouds roll in and the solar field output drops quickly, it’s a challenge for the rest of the system to compensate since any other generator that spins will slow down much more slowly, giving the grid more time to react.

Also, I was not aware that inverters can only handle fault current that is 1.1x the nameplate capacity, that’s a big limitation. I can buy a 20A breaker with 200kaic, which is 10,000x higher than the breaker ampacity, which is extremely helpful for handling fault current.

Re: US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

#102

Post by maxerickson »

HWR_14 wrote: post #85
londons_explore wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a future with solar and batteries, daytime and nighttime electricity pricing cannot be equal - else nobody would bother to have a battery (grid scale or at home). Rules and regulations could solve that problem (meter not allowed to go backwards, solar companies are forced to pay some kind of battery credit, etc), but the free market will always outcompete. Therefore, I forsee the future lies in 'smart' electricity…

And then a storm hits texas and without realizing it you run up a $30,000 electricity bill in a single night of not freezing.

The whole gimmick with that supplier was that they exposed their customers more or less directly to grid pricing. You don't need to do that to charge different prices during different parts of the day.

Re: US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

#103

Post by chithanh »

lazide wrote: post #39
elzbardico wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the marginal value of electricity is negative, what matters if it is energy inefficient?

Scale/quantity. That ‘negative value’ electricity could also be used to do something else. And actually requires a lot of capital to produce. It isn’t actually free, it’s a side effect of another process that has restraints/restrictions.

It has a negative price precisely because at that given moment, nobody can use it for anything else.

Re: US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

#104

Post by Fraterkes »

b65e8bee43c2ed0 wrote: post #97
jordanb wrote: post #91

While I'm concerned about the environmental challenges of reversing the trend and increasing energy consumption, I'm happy that people are living in more comfortable homes, that the Amercian industrial base is being restored, that more and better services are being provided (better healthcare, inexpensive and healthy food, comfortable, efficient and inexpensive transportation). That is what we're using this electrici…

the US is not a planned economy. if it was, computers would exist only to guide missiles and operate industrial machinery, and you would be mining coal, farming wheat, or manning an assembly line for a living.

…and I wouldn’t have to read this kind of drivel. Sounds like a blessing.

Re: US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

#105

Post by londons_explore »

HWR_14 wrote: post #85
londons_explore wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a future with solar and batteries, daytime and nighttime electricity pricing cannot be equal - else nobody would bother to have a battery (grid scale or at home). Rules and regulations could solve that problem (meter not allowed to go backwards, solar companies are forced to pay some kind of battery credit, etc), but the free market will always outcompete. Therefore, I forsee the future lies in 'smart' electricity…

And then a storm hits texas and without realizing it you run up a $30,000 electricity bill in a single night of not freezing.

This only happens if a small percentage of people have live pricing. If most people have live pricing, most people have an incentive to act on price changes - for example by turning the heating off in unused rooms to save money.

In turn, that means that at times of crisis, prices will be high, but not 1000x high.

Gasoline is another resource with live pricing, and suggesting "I want a subscription where I pay $3 per gallon fixed for a year, no matter how much I use and no matter what happens to the price of oil" wouldn't be something a fuel station would entertain, because they know that when the price was under $3 you'd buy elsewhere, and when the price was over $3 you'd buy millions of gallons and resell at a profit.

Re: US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

#106

Post by dgacmu »

raddan wrote: post #58
elzbardico wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cost. Useful life. I thought about an off grid system. Batteries are expensive. Also, unless you live in a dry place in the equator, You'll need to account for things like winter, long rainy spells, so either you add more batteries to account for multiple days (weeks? months?) of low generation, or you'll need a diesel/gas generator, or have a hybrid system instead, which basically means you're using the utilities ga…

Generating your own power does not necessarily mean cutting ties with the grid. I think for most people in most places being off-grid would be a real challenge. I’m not sure how Australia does it but in my neck of the woods (northeast US) staying grid-tied is the norm. I have a relatively big battery (12kWh) which is enough to see me through the evening during the summer months. We do not get quite enough sunshine wh…

We do the same in Pennsylvania - I have about 10 kwh of battery. I can't put solar on my roof, so I only have a very small 800w array on top of my garden. I run it as an off grid system that can recharge from shore power, so I have to use all of the energy it produces or it goes to waste. But it saves some money and is enough battery to let me time shift to take advantage of time of use power rates, and it gives me very good run time for refrigerators and internet during outages.

There seem to be a few sweet spots in solar - a tiny array that you use all of without having to grid tie it is really cost effective. (The cost of grid tied solar adds 5-10k to the system cost). Otherwise go big. :)

Re: US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

#107

Post by Filligree »

londons_explore wrote: post #70
raddan wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, power companies did not necessarily kill energy export incentives. Here in Massachusetts my meter “runs backward” when I export to the grid. This does not earn me money but it does earn me kWh credits, which means that if I am net negative for energy import in the summer and net positive for import in the winter, I can be net zero (or close to it) for the year. In MA and a few other states, polluters are also r…

In a future with solar and batteries, daytime and nighttime electricity pricing cannot be equal - else nobody would bother to have a battery (grid scale or at home). Rules and regulations could solve that problem (meter not allowed to go backwards, solar companies are forced to pay some kind of battery credit, etc), but the free market will always outcompete. Therefore, I forsee the future lies in 'smart' electricity…

Here in Ireland, night-time power prices are much lower than daytime.

I’m happy enough that a battery will serve me equally well in both modes, but there’s definitely going to be a period where all it does is support self-consumption.

Re: US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

#108

Post by setgree »

jordanb wrote: post #91

While I'm concerned about the environmental challenges of reversing the trend and increasing energy consumption, I'm happy that people are living in more comfortable homes, that the Amercian industrial base is being restored, that more and better services are being provided (better healthcare, inexpensive and healthy food, comfortable, efficient and inexpensive transportation). That is what we're using this electrici…

We are indeed living in more comfortable homes. Americans are migrating to the sunbelt because of ample AC in the summer and the winters are pleasant. that’s a big part of why we have many fewer heat deaths per capita than Europe: https://www.thetimes-tribune.com/2025/08/02/opinion-us-heat-...

Re: US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

#109

Post by echelon »

b65e8bee43c2ed0 wrote: post #97
jordanb wrote: post #91

While I'm concerned about the environmental challenges of reversing the trend and increasing energy consumption, I'm happy that people are living in more comfortable homes, that the Amercian industrial base is being restored, that more and better services are being provided (better healthcare, inexpensive and healthy food, comfortable, efficient and inexpensive transportation). That is what we're using this electrici…

the US is not a planned economy. if it was, computers would exist only to guide missiles and operate industrial machinery, and you would be mining coal, farming wheat, or manning an assembly line for a living.

Some of the economy should be encouraged with heavy subsidy or though DoD purchases.

It's worked out well for us in the past.

Wind and solar, nuclear, EVs, manufacturing, robots, chips, and drones should be helped along by the state.

We would be stupid not to spend in these categories.

We should also build out chemical inputs manufacture, rare earths refining, pharmaceutical manufacture, etc. to support the work that happens downstream and to be less fragile to supply chain disruption.

A multi-polar world is inherently less stable and demands more self-sufficiency.

Re: US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it

#110

Post by le-mark »

gtirloni wrote: post #93
jordanb wrote: post #91

While I'm concerned about the environmental challenges of reversing the trend and increasing energy consumption, I'm happy that people are living in more comfortable homes, that the Amercian industrial base is being restored, that more and better services are being provided (better healthcare, inexpensive and healthy food, comfortable, efficient and inexpensive transportation). That is what we're using this electrici…

Forgot /s

That’s what I was thinking, clearly sarcasm because none of that is true.
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