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All the electricity you'll need for 40 years

innerpathing.com

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Re: All the electricity you'll need for 40 years

#51

Post by sdk77 »

titanomachy wrote: post #25
sdk77 wrote: post #8

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…

> need to pay to feed back in the surplus Why not have the panels disconnect themselves in this case? Is this too small an expense to justify the cost of additional hardware to manage switching on and off?

It all depends on the situation. Here in the Netherlands almost everybody has an PV installation with no way other than the breaker to turn it on and off. Some inverters do have an interface, and sometimes it's available. Even less people know anything about this at all, they just had panels installed. The technical solution is simple, bit implementing it will cost much more, I assume.

Re: All the electricity you'll need for 40 years

#52

Post by stefs »

pryelluw wrote: post #41
skybrian wrote: post #28

> 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.

It also depends on the batteries themselves. An older Nissan leaf? Doubt it. A newer Tesla? I sure hope so. Im curious as to how car batteries will be repurposed to use for energy storage. Once they degrade to the point of only holding charge for short trips, can they still be used for other scenarios that don’t require as much from them?

They're already used for industrial storage of surplus solar- and wind power.

I'm my opinion the big problem with electric cars are the price of replacement batteries in combination with buying used.

Re: All the electricity you'll need for 40 years

#53

Post by jeffbee »

candiddevmike wrote: post #3

This seems like a "green brag" without much substance. Great that this person is privileged enough to afford solar panels, I guess. Nothing to be learned here though: no wire diagrams, placement schematics, or BoM. Just someone telling everyone how green they are.

I agree about this article being vapid, but at least it does introduce the fact that PV doesn't degrade. A lot of people have been poisoned by oil industry propaganda that every PV panel needs to be trashed in 20 years.

Re: All the electricity you'll need for 40 years

#54

Post by stonethrowaway »

candiddevmike wrote: post #3

This seems like a "green brag" without much substance. Great that this person is privileged enough to afford solar panels, I guess. Nothing to be learned here though: no wire diagrams, placement schematics, or BoM. Just someone telling everyone how green they are.

I wouldn’t say so honestly. In the pantheon of green bragging you can do much, much worse. I think these folks are more down the earth given they recognize their mortality and that what they’ve got here will outlive them, but in general they are gridless people and as such a bit outside of the benefits of bragging.

The shit shows unfolding elsewhere fall into hypocritical territory - concerned about climate change yet are regularly flying. For these folks here, I’m willing to be more charitable. Looking forward to seeing more photos of, hopefully, simpler life.

Re: All the electricity you'll need for 40 years

#55

Post by theturtle32 »

sdk77 wrote: post #8

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…

"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?

Re: All the electricity you'll need for 40 years

#56

Post by Animats »

candiddevmike wrote: post #3

This seems like a "green brag" without much substance. Great that this person is privileged enough to afford solar panels, I guess. Nothing to be learned here though: no wire diagrams, placement schematics, or BoM. Just someone telling everyone how green they are.

The solar panels are cheap. It's the multi-acre lot with a lake that's expensive.

Re: All the electricity you'll need for 40 years

#57

Post by ben_w »

skybrian wrote: post #30
ccozan wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It seems like that works for daily cycles, but isn't that very expensive storage for one cycle a year, which is what you need to save energy for winter?

Depends how close to the poles you are. A lot of the world can do this fine by sizing the PV for winter; too close to the poles and there's not going to work — you either need to diversify power generation by kind (wind, wave, hydro, geothermal all work too, but again geographically constrained) or by distance (the maths says we can build an adequate and literally global power grid for an affordable quantity of aluminium, shame about the politics).

Re: All the electricity you'll need for 40 years

#58

Post by dtech »

theturtle32 wrote: post #55
sdk77 wrote: post #8

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…

"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?

When there is a lot of wind and sun simultaneously there is effectively too much electricity supply on the net, and day-ahead prices drop negative. This is partially fueled by flat subsidies per unit produced (has been fixed for a while for new installations), so producing when there's oversupply can still be profitable. Also most households have a flat energy rate and can amortize their energy usage over the year, so they will always keep their solar panels on even if the energy is less than worthless.

US pricing works very differently, especially in Texas.

Re: All the electricity you'll need for 40 years

#59

Post by [deleted] »

fragmede wrote: post #50
fallingsquirrel wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Utilities should charge a separate connection fee and per-kWh rate if that's what matches the economic reality of their business. I don't see the summer abundance as an issue. It means we get to shut off the fossil fuels 8 months out of the year. The remaining 4 months, everyone pays a little more per kWh, averaging out to the same cost over a full year. What's not to like?

The economic viability of a fossil fuel plant that's only used 4 months out of the year. If the plant shuts down because it's no longer economically viable/doesn't cover operating costs, what happens next winter?

[deleted]

Re: All the electricity you'll need for 40 years

#60

Post by pierot »

theturtle32 wrote: post #55
sdk77 wrote: post #8

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…

"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?

Yes, prices can go negative if you have a dynamic energy contract.
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