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

electrek.co

171–180 of 317 posts

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

#171
Does not make economic sense, there is still the cost of panels and transmission.

There might be a surplus now but dropping the price to zero will increase use (demand).

I was surprised the story does not even specify "residential," it really says "everyone." That's a great way to exhaust existing supply. Entrepreneurs can presumably be quite creative in the shape of businesses they set up if unlimited free power is on offer during the day.

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

#172
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.

Leland Stanford made out ok, AFAIK

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

#173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Australia will give you a 30% discount on that purchase, they have a fund of 2.3 Billion Australian dollars available for this purpose called the Cheaper Home Batteries program.

Man as someone paying a premium for power in the US, Australia is sounding really nice

You can do something similar in Texas IIRC, with free electricity at certain times

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

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything about the push to convert the whole fleet to EVs falls apart under even the slightest rational scrutiny.

Is it falling apart right now? It seems the poster has forgotten that EVs can be charged at home but also away from home. They mention that in the last paragraph, but it kind of seems to undermine the whole premise that this is a problem.

Yes, it is in the process of disintegrating. The main symptom is the transformer shortage.

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

#175
post #47
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

still sounds like an incredible way to incentivize consumers to buy small-scale storage. if i knew i could get free electricity for an hour or two each day (or even each week) it'd be a very easy choice to drop ~$1000 on a home battery.

You'd spend $1000 to save $0.20 on electricity every day?

Where I live, $1000 would get you about 3kWh of battery power, which would pay for itself in a couple years

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

#176
post #64

Ignoring the politics, we have to say that China has done the world collectively as a whole a major service in strategically developing and mass producing super cheap solar panels.

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.

It's probably because germany decided to sorta give up on it and all of the production and further research moved to china?

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

#177
post #70
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Power travels near the speed of light. In theory, the entire globe can be connected and countries with daylight can supply those at night in a cycle.

This isn't going to happen simply because it would introduce enormous strategic vulnerabilities. The first act ina war would be to sever an opponent's grid connections to their neighbors because that would massively erode their ability to maintain an orderly civil society.

This won't happen because the lines are bi-directional. It would be like chopping off their own energy supply. Because of the Earth's rotation, neighbors can take advantage of each other's sunlight. Parts of Europe and North Africa's energy markets are already working on this.

For the past 100+ years, the US has been spending a significant amount of money on protecting oil supplies to protect its oil billionaires and its economy. It's the #1 budget item, outspending the combined military spending of the next 10 economies. This can be reduced to zero, and ultimately, the $ 39 trillion deficit can be eliminated.

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

#178
post #126
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't going to happen simply because it would introduce enormous strategic vulnerabilities. The first act ina war would be to sever an opponent's grid connections to their neighbors because that would massively erode their ability to maintain an orderly civil society.

Or if everyone depends on another maybe we will not go into a war with each other.

People believed this before. Then WW1 happened. 100 years later, people forgot the lessons of the past, and believed this again. Then Russia invaded Ukraine.

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

#180
post #64

Ignoring the politics, we have to say that China has done the world collectively as a whole a major service in strategically developing and mass producing super cheap solar panels.

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.

Yeah and then we let it die
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