101–110 of 131 posts
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or you get a battery. Is just great. I have 3.5kw solar power witha 9kwh battery. Very very seldom it switches to power line. And this is in south Germany, maybe a bit sunnier than north but still - it rains a lot/cloudy, sun is sparse.
Any advice on battery brands and features you could share?
People forget that solar panels don't grow on the trees, battery packs especially have very large footprint and their manufacturing is resource intensive.
From the article: Solar panels and batteries depend on a global supply chain and take their own toll on the environment, but the life cycle emission of solar is ~40 gCO2/kWh, 25x lower than coal's 1,000 gCO2/kWh. And buying solar fuels innovation—such as alternatives to lithium-ion batteries now on the horizon.
If you want to be a real hippy
I wish regulations where more lax in France. It was a battle with the town council to install 3.2kw of solar panels on the ground, I want to install 10 more but it looks like the ground option which is cheap will not be approved, I would have to out them on my roof which is costly and is not true south (and arguably, more visible).
What are their reasons for not allowing it? Sounds stupid on many levels to forbid it.
It's nice to have solar panels, I have them too and while they do generate even more electricity than I need, they do so in around 6 to 7 months peaking in July. So in winter, it's grid power and in summer I might need to pay to feed in the surplus. This is in the Netherlands. It's kind of sad to see all that electricity unused in summer, and knowing I could have enough for all of the winter if only there was some wa…
> This is in the Netherlands. It's kind of sad to see all that electricity unused in summer, This is literally what local and state government is for; talk to others and get policy moving on excess energy being used to generate bulk stored energy at scale for winter months, be that gas, deep thermal storage, tradable goods to offset winter costs, etc.
> Electric vehicles are mainstream and last longer than their gas engine counterparts, with an estimated lifespan of 200,000 miles. What's this based on? Don't many gas cars last that long? It seems like it depends very much on how well you maintain them.
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Aside from propaganda, what if the roof only lasts 25 years? And doesn’t mounting panels on top of a roof increase possibilities for leaks? I really would like solar to work. But have seen too many crazy storms and even a minor tornado in the past 5 years to make me wonder about 20+ year longevity.
I would personally never mount panels on the roof in a context like this one, a house in the middle of nowhere. They should just be on a pole, mast, or frame. Anywhere but the roof.
It's nice to have solar panels, I have them too and while they do generate even more electricity than I need, they do so in around 6 to 7 months peaking in July. So in winter, it's grid power and in summer I might need to pay to feed in the surplus. This is in the Netherlands. It's kind of sad to see all that electricity unused in summer, and knowing I could have enough for all of the winter if only there was some wa…
> This is in the Netherlands. It's kind of sad to see all that electricity unused in summer, This is literally what local and state government is for; talk to others and get policy moving on excess energy being used to generate bulk stored energy at scale for winter months, be that gas, deep thermal storage, tradable goods to offset winter costs, etc.
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Isn't there a way to sell the unused solar power to the grid in summers and during winters the grid sends back the power needed to you at a discounted price?
If every household did this we would have massive problems. We would still need a base load amount in the winter, and in the summer there would be an over abundance. The price of electricity would swing between essentially free in the summer to higher than normal in the winter, because the cost of operating base grid power would be about same but they would need to cover all operating costs during the winter.
This ain't gonna happen. Air conditioning will be saving lives.
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"pay to feed in the surplus"? In my U.S. context, this sounds surprising: are you saying that sometimes the energy utility CHARGES you money when you feed solar energy to the grid? That sounds... bizarre?
If I were to deliver you 1000 gallons of milk that expires in 10 minutes*, would you pay me or want to charge me for that priviledge. Assume you have enough milk already. * (< 1 millisecond for electricity but hey for the milk analogy say 10 minutes).
If there is no grid-side demand for the energy from my solar panels, then they're not going to be force-feeding it to a grid that doesn't want it.
When you plug a light bulb that's rated to draw 20 watts into a power source capable of delivering 1000 watts, it doesn't blow up your light bulb, because the light bulb only takes what it needs from the source.