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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

#261

Post by maxglute »

GeoAtreides wrote: post #241
maxglute wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of them would. These are labour-rural-transfer programs thats been going on in PRC for poverty alleviation for 20+ years that retards in west twisted into slave labour. The entire coerced labour propaganda are bunch of country bumpkin Uyghurs getting enrolled in poverty alleviation programs where they're paid close to median wage, i.e. 2x+ typical subsistent agri income. This is equivalent to US starting a jobs…

i have a question for dang. If I was to post a comment that frames the armenian or rohingya genocide, or indeed any genocide, in a good light, would my comment be flagged? What exactly is HN policy on moderating genocide-washing propaganda? asking for a chinese friend

It's 2025. US/Pompeo's fake genocide propaganda campaign failed. There's no need to genocide wash because you know, there was never genocide to begin with. Even astroturfed wikipedia had to concede "Genocide of Uyghurs" down to "Persecution". Nvm plurarity of UN opinion labels PRC actions as counter terrorism / anti extremism programs. If HN is required to align with US foreign policy positions / be US gov mouthpiece where US maintains XJ genocide designation, then sure flag comments contrary to geopolitical reality that there's no genocide.

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

#262

Post by tstrimple »

naIak wrote: post #42
bee_rider wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the “smart grid” idea, right? We just haven’t fully explored it yet. Something I firmly believe is that there’s a ton of low hanging fruit for timing our energy use better. It is just hidden by the desire to present a uniform energy price. Like why not run our water heaters when power is cheap? Then if that became a thing, we might even be interested in larger water heater tanks. Batteries cost per volume, yo…

Power at peak times is cheap because load is distributed throughout the day. If everybody ran their heaters at the same time, power wouldn’t be so cheap and we’d reach the same situation we’re in.

Think of being able to set a price on Amazon Spot instances where it's low enough to charge your home battery for "free". When the price is right, you recharge your batteries as much as possible. When the price falls outside the range, you leverage your battery to offset the higher electricity prices. This would be part of the "smart" in "smart grids".

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

#263

Post by aeonfox »

nandomrumber wrote: post #259
aeonfox wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But isn't the OP article about distributing the benefits to the wider population? Add to that the uptake of batteries GP is mentioning will substantially reduce both the need for back-up power and the cost of transmission that have been driving up electricity prices.

At what cost, and to who? So you can have three hours of free electricity, while you’re at work, the kids are at school, you’re renting so no battery for you, electricity has already increased 100% and continues to increase, but only once a year , and now you’re being offered something your 10 year old second hand appliances and petrol cars can’t take advantage of. Forget trickle down economics, it’s deluge-up. From…

> So you can have three hours of free electricity, while you’re at work, the kids are at school, you’re renting so no battery for you

Probably not useful for cooking dinner or watching the evening news, but most dishwashers and clothes washers have a delay start option. Your fridge is also working its hardest during the middle of the day.

> and now you’re being offered something your 10 year old second hand appliances and petrol cars can’t take advantage of.

A washer/dryer combo would be useful for delayed start. But as mentioned, delay start has been a common option for a long time now.

> We should be sitting down trying to work out how we can use more power next month, in order to leverage that power to have a better life, warmer / cooler homes. Starting businesses and not having electricity be the killer.

BESS are the deluge up you're asking for. Much of the stress on the grid is that power generation is distributed unevenly. Grid scale battery prices have been crashing stupidly year on year, to the tune of about 20-40%, and those effects are only just starting to hit the consumer market. The uptake curve has been reasonably steady, and at current projections we would have 24 hours of world-wide storage by 2035. Which is nuts!

I think this is sensible policy. It ought to reduce power prices across the board. At the very least, energy companies would have few excuses to hide behind if prices don't become more competitive.

Another sensible policy to help renters would be to force landlords and owners' corps to put timers on their electric hot water systems. It's a kind of energy storage that most people don't consider.

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

#264

Post by nandomrumber »

choeger wrote: post #38
shevy-java wrote: post #28

But it is so damn HOT there. And Australia has the most vicious animals and plants too. It is like an alien continent.

Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that even the electrons are poisonous there...

As an Australian, I’ve found the electrons toxicity to be very dose dependent.

Definitely watch out for the severe acute toxicity variants.

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

#265

Post by nandomrumber »

georgebcrawford wrote: post #121
shevy-java wrote: post #28

But it is so damn HOT there. And Australia has the most vicious animals and plants too. It is like an alien continent.

I’ve lived here 15 years and seen two snakes, zero deadly spiders, zero crocs. Yes, I’m on the city fringe. Like millions of others here.

The daddy long legs hunts and kills other spiders.

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

#266

Post by shushpanchik »

nandomrumber wrote: post #242
msy wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a bizarrely negative take. No residential is being charged negative prices without very, very explicitly joining a plan that exposes them to the direct minute-by-minute wholesale price. Most 'EV' plans include free hours during the day (and much cheaper power in the early hours as well), it's likely it'll be standard within months thanks to this. They are now also subsidising batteries while should help meet…

> This is a generational success story So long as you ignore the working-poor. Those who live pay check to pay check, can’t afford solar / battery - or are renting so none of that applies to them. Yeah, they can just get fucked . What a success!

That's a weird uninformed take. Both solar and battery are heavily subsidised in Australia if your household income is less than $180k AUD. Average solar 6kW installation with subsidies is ~3k AUD, 30-40kWh chineses batteries are 4-6k AUD after subsidy.

Median full-time salary in AU is ~90k AUD, and we have pretty good minimal wages, so solar panels are affordable to almost every working homeowner.

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

#267

Post by shushpanchik »

nandomrumber wrote: post #259
aeonfox wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But isn't the OP article about distributing the benefits to the wider population? Add to that the uptake of batteries GP is mentioning will substantially reduce both the need for back-up power and the cost of transmission that have been driving up electricity prices.

At what cost, and to who? So you can have three hours of free electricity, while you’re at work, the kids are at school, you’re renting so no battery for you, electricity has already increased 100% and continues to increase, but only once a year , and now you’re being offered something your 10 year old second hand appliances and petrol cars can’t take advantage of. Forget trickle down economics, it’s deluge-up. From…

I'm from Australia and my electricity provider has 12pm-2pm free electricity. As other's said, dishwasher and washing machine has delayed/smart start options, so that is free for me. That saves at least 3kWh per day for me, so ~$30 per month. So it really helps with CoL crisis.

And yes, those appliances are (almost) 10 years old.

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

#268

Post by shushpanchik »

nandomrumber wrote: post #244
viraptor wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Not the working-poor. Not renters. By rebate you mean: a wealth transfer from tax payers to those who need it least, those who can afford a battery, those who aren’t renting.

Not sure what renting has to do with this? Renters in Australia do not install batteries/panels, it's landlord's business.

If landlord has batteries/panels installed, chances are rent would be a bit higher. Renter is free to choose a place with lower energy bills by paying that premium, so these subsidies definitely could benefit the renters.

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

#269

Post by shushpanchik »

larusso wrote: post #98

I still wonder who came up with the charge your car during the day / use it as a batterie. I don’t have the luxury’s of owning two EVs that I can charge and use at the same time. If my car stand unused at home so I can charge it would mean I use it during the night? I understand that there could be useage pattern where someone works from home once or twice a week and waits with the charge during these peek hours. But…

6 free hours during weekend with 7kW home charger give you 42kWh, that's ~200km per week free. That's not nothing.
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