Generators pay to stay on as dominant rooftop solar 'cannibalises' electricity prices
www.abc.net.au
The rise of rooftop solar in Australia shows no signs of slowing, bringing cheap, clean power. But the technology is also reshaping the power system in some surprising ways.
  • 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
  • stabby_cicada@slrpnk.net
    56·
    1 year ago

    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. 😆