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

electrek.co

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

#191

Post by SoftTalker »

jjcm wrote: post #128
chankstein38 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I took a job with Atlassian out there and got my citizenship. Best 5 years of my life. I'm back in the US now temporarily, but there's zero doubt in my mind I will end up back in Aus. I've lived in 8 cities now(1), and Sydney was the highest quality of life I've had out of any of them. Great infrastructure, great work-life balance, great culture, and fantastic weather. Only downsides are the distance and the lack of…

What about the spiders?

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

#192

Post by testing22321 »

jeffbee wrote: post #145
bdcravens wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"the push to convert the whole fleet" Is that anything like the "_ agenda being pushed" I keep hearing about, but can't seem to see anywhere?

Well, to me the EV conversion push, which undeniably exists and has many government policies supporting it, does represent an agenda, and that agenda is "Cars Über Alles". The obviously more practical approach to the problem is to support the conversion of transportation demand to less energy-intensive modes such as trains, buses, bicycles, and feet. It isn't very practical to say we're all going to have an EV and we…

Why not?

We extract, refine, transport, store and pump billions of litres of toxic chemicals everyday to power our cars now.

We could do the same with electricity if we wanted to, and use a fraction of the energy.

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

#193

Post by viraptor »

testing22321 wrote: post #117
marcosdumay wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you can just turn solar off Somebody has to go and turn it off, and having this person available overwhelms all of your operational costs. Or alternatively, you need the infrastructure to do it automatically, what is currently expensive. (But there aren't intrinsic reasons for that being expensive, it's probably due to lack of scale.) If it's just slightly negative, or just rarely so, it's not worth it.

Basically every home in Australia, and certainly every home and business solar setup, has a smart meter that is grid connected and can be remotely shut down when needed. Or they even just limit the amount that can feedback to the grid if required I.e you’re making 8kw of solar, but it will only let you feed in 2 if the system determines that. There is not “person” turning things on and off.

Since this year, you're also forced to have the remote kill switch on the new solar installations at home.

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

#194

Post by jay_kyburz »

viraptor wrote: post #182
jay_kyburz wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't look into the details, but It sure feels like a slap in the face to those of us who invested in panels. I think this is about battery sales for those that can afford it. Fill a battery up for free and use the power during peak hours.

There's currently a significant rebate on batteries in Australia. (Or maybe just Victoria?) So that's definitely one attempted solution. People are getting it for costs paying off in under 5 years.

I got this email from from our local provider the other day..

"For a limited time only, we're offering a $500 upfront electricity bill credit* with every eligible home battery system (Tesla Powerwall 2 & 3, LG Chem HV, SolarEdge batteries only) purchased through Electrify with ActewAGL and installed by one of our approved installers - plus a further $100 credit* every year for the next five years, so long as you stay connected to our Virtual Power Plant.

Join the thousands of households across across Australia taking advantage of the Cheaper Home Batteries Program. Over 100,000 systems have been installed since July 2025, and with the rebate scheduled to decrease as installations rise, now is the time to act."

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

#196

Post by testing22321 »

quickthrowman wrote: post #133
jimt1234 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A friend of mine is trying to build a house in a remote area of Southern California. He's planning to be completely "off-grid", generating power exclusively from solar. However, local regulators insist he hook up to the local electric utility. Further, in order to run the electrical cables to his property (from the substation), the local fire department insists that the brush is cleared around the new electrical cabl…

Your friend is not the last person that will own that house, forcing a utility connection is a good thing for future owners. The same reasoning is why building codes exist, nobody really cares if you want to live in a substandard dwelling (aside from your mortgage insurer) but basically every house has more than one owner over time. Building codes mean when you buy a house, you can be reasonably certain there aren’t…

Have you ever lived in an off grid house?

Friends have a full sized off grid house in the Yukon since 2010. Every modern convenience, stunning location. Never a single power outage in all those years. How many power outages have you had?

Off grid is not somehow sub standard.

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

#197

Post by jeffbee »

testing22321 wrote: post #192
jeffbee wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, to me the EV conversion push, which undeniably exists and has many government policies supporting it, does represent an agenda, and that agenda is "Cars Über Alles". The obviously more practical approach to the problem is to support the conversion of transportation demand to less energy-intensive modes such as trains, buses, bicycles, and feet. It isn't very practical to say we're all going to have an EV and we…

Why not? We extract, refine, transport, store and pump billions of litres of toxic chemicals everyday to power our cars now. We could do the same with electricity if we wanted to, and use a fraction of the energy.

The liquid fuel distribution system is simply far more space-efficient than any known means of EV charging. The liquid fuel scheme works because the energy flux through the pump is obscene. EVs don't have an answer to this problem.

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

#198

Post by no_wizard »

adwn wrote: post #178
aiono wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If Ukraine was part of NATO it wouldn’t have happened I am willing to bet.

Most in depth analysis I’ve seen of these Russia - Ukraine conflicts cite this as one of the top factors in why Russia invaded both a decade ago and the most recent war that is ongoing.

That is to say - mutual cooperation agreements like that have enough teeth to keep conflicts to a minimum as the repercussions are severe

Also another ultimate irony is that Russia didn’t completely cut the rest of Europe off from its oil and gas. That symbiosis continues albeit not the same way. Perhaps electricity would be the same

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

#199

Post by somanyphotons »

SoftTalker wrote: post #191
jjcm wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I took a job with Atlassian out there and got my citizenship. Best 5 years of my life. I'm back in the US now temporarily, but there's zero doubt in my mind I will end up back in Aus. I've lived in 8 cities now(1), and Sydney was the highest quality of life I've had out of any of them. Great infrastructure, great work-life balance, great culture, and fantastic weather. Only downsides are the distance and the lack of…

What about the spiders?

If a bad spider bite happens, government-provided health care has your back

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

#200

Post by wongarsu »

dylan604 wrote: post #150
nielsole wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still wonder the same about the EU and LED lighting. Prohibiting traditional bulbs was highly controversial at the time

if we didn't transition through the horrible days of CFLs first. since we did, that's a big knock against

If cheap LED light bulbs had been around we wouldn't have need legislation in the first place. Both Germany's solar subsidies and the EU prohibiting (high power) incandescent light bulbs were cases where existing alternatives were bad (solar was way too expensive to be practical, non-incandescent light bulbs sucked), but legislation intentionally created demand for them anyways in hopes that with demand there would be research and scaling effects that create better cheaper products. In both cases it worked, even if the transition was a bit painful in both cases.
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