- Wholesale power prices are increasingly turning negative at times of high solar output
- Observers say rooftop solar is “cannibalising” electricity prices and hitting large-scale solar hard
- There are calls for storage and greater daytime demand to help soak up solar production
Here in California, utility companies are “solving” this by instituting extremely high fees for the privilege of connecting your solar power to the grid. If I recall from the last time I ran the numbers, rooftop solar panels no longer make economic sense for the vast majority of residential customers - it costs more money to install me solar panels and pay the monthly connection fees then you’ll save by producing energy over the lifetime of the solar panels.
Edit: I just googled and it looks like after public outcry the regulators pulled their really bad fee schedule to replace with a slightly less bad fee schedule. The system works!
Probably the one time in history PG&E tried to fix a problem ahead of time. 😆
Fucking greedy cunts.
get more solar, battery and fully disconnect?
In Colorado, it’s actually illegal to disconnect from the grid once you’re on the grid. Yay capitalism!
They are at it again, trying to block solar on churches and schools. Tell Gavin Newsom to get his CPUC in line.
Nova Scotia Power proposed something similar, and then walked it back.
Meanwhile in Australia anyone without solar panels is paying record high prices for their power and are trying to conserve their power use as much as possible to try to make ends meet. There’s no “negative pricing” for consumers.
That’s why the calls for storage should be in the form of rebates for solar and battery systems for residential houses, rather than the big battery tech they keep on suggesting we use. Wholesale prices won’t go negative if solar users don’t sell the power they generate, and the solar users can save money too by using the power we’ve stored when the prices go up.
It’s a win-win, albeit with the major exception of those who don’t have solar. Who won’t be able to take advantage of negative prices and will probably be hung dry with higher bills (keep in mind they are already pretty high to begin with)
Commercial cost are significantly cheaper at grid scale storage and also covers renters not just the elite ….
Build 'em all. There will be winners eventually. Until then, let’s try everything.
That’s pretty amazing. I guess it’s time to start moving on short-term energy storage solutions.
I present to you: a rock.
