341–350 of 427 posts
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They also have hardly any GDP per capita compared to Australia.
And the geography (especially in the more populated areas) is like 60-70% mountains and hills and shit. Australia has significantly more flat land for easy solar builds, with 1/50th the population.
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How would rooftop solar even work in China, especially in Chinese cities? Is the assumption that SFHs or at least row homes are as common in China as they are in other countries?
SFH's are rare in China outside the villages; big cities are all high-rises (in Beijing, and I believe other large cities, it's illegal to build SFH's within the city limits, though the few remaining "hutongs" are exempted for historical reasons)
When I lived in Beijing, the apartment buildings I lived in usually had solar hot water. Well, I could tell when they turned on the central heating plants for the winter because I finally had hot water showers again.
People think the solution is to build huge battery packs to store all that excess power during peak periods and drain them down during off-peak times.
That is certainly a solution, even if it is an expensive one. Perhaps a cheaper one is to get everyone to consume the power while it is being produced. Running air conditioners at full blast. Washing clothes and dishes. Charging electric vehicles. There are many things that can be shifted to those peak times, if the incentives are there.
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> ”Remember Australia has over 10x the rollout of solar than china (per capita of course).” China is adding around 10X Australia’s total installed solar power generation every single year. Half of the entire world’s deployed solar is in China. And while Australia’s solar growth is impressive, it’s worth remembering that it’s only possible because of China. It was Chinese government policy that pushed to develop the h…
This is true - without Chinese manufacturing of solar cells and panels, solar energy would not be as cheap as it is today. Equally true is that Chinese manufacturing of solar cells is only partly possible because of Australian solar research and development. In 1983, a research team at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), invented the PERC silicon solar cell. This design fundamentally improved solar cell efficie…
Renewable power tends to be sporadic. When the wind is blowing or the sun is shining brightly, they produce a lot of cheap power. People think the solution is to build huge battery packs to store all that excess power during peak periods and drain them down during off-peak times. That is certainly a solution, even if it is an expensive one. Perhaps a cheaper one is to get everyone to consume the power while it is bei…
Edited to add: Clarification required in the title that the free energy is only between 11am and 2pm Very interested to see how this turns out. Ultimately we want the transition to benefit both consumers and producers / distributors (the industry). The problem from the rapid uptake of solar in Australia has been an over-supply during this 10/11am to 2/3pm period. If that over-supply is suitably encouraged to be soake…
The change certainly brings in some weirdness too. For instance, I'm looking at a new hot water system. Economically speaking, I'm better off buying an oversized tank using resistive heating that I only need to heat once per day. The grid provides free power and I buy a cheaper appliance. But environmentally it sucks, as more solar needs to be rolled out to cover the additional non-peak usage (guess about 6x the powe…
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Wait, capped at 24 kWh a day? Our household consumed 8 kWh per day over the past week (gas cooking, no airco). So with a home battery that sinks 10 kWh during those 3 hours you have minimal energy costs?
The Australian grid presently curtails ~7-18% of production every single day between 11:00 and 14:00. I believe that incentivizing people to acquire batteries is precisely the purpose of the policy. It's good for the grid for there to be a lot of storage at the edges. As I understand it, the 24kWh cap is subject to annual review, with it being reduced/the policy being soft phased out once curtailment is no longer nec…
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I pay about 38c per kilowatt plus $1.70 per day for the connection fee. So by that maths, you'd save 8×0.38=$3.04 per day. A 10kWh battery is in the ballpark of $4000. So it'll take about 4 years to break even. Then you'd just have to pay the connection fee, which seem to be increasing every year.
The connection fee would also rise with less energy consumption/free electricity to amortize the fixed costs of the power grid.
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Texas is beating California by a large margin when it comes to solar due to bureaucratic red tape and "environmental" review in California along with monopolistic utility companies, which have successfully lobbied against solar by removing net metering and adding in extra solar connection charges.
Texas generates a lot more power than California. The generate more grid solar, more wind, more gas and more coal than other states. They're still #2 to California when you include distributed solar though.
It is only attractive in California due to a combination absurd electricity prices from State sanctioned monopolies and red tape preventing grid development.
Renewable power tends to be sporadic. When the wind is blowing or the sun is shining brightly, they produce a lot of cheap power. People think the solution is to build huge battery packs to store all that excess power during peak periods and drain them down during off-peak times. That is certainly a solution, even if it is an expensive one. Perhaps a cheaper one is to get everyone to consume the power while it is bei…
This won't work. Just do air-conditioning whilst power is being produced? LOL, you know it's hot in someplaces outside of that?
Again, if the incentives are there, people will adjust.