Solar ... In the news

Martyn1981 wrote: »

BTW, around noon yesterday Germany hit 29.87GW.

Hi Mart, I knew they had a lot more PV than us but I didn't realize it was of that magnitude (although being further south is also a factor).

NigeWick wrote: »

Have a look at the latest video from Fully Charged (Robert Llewellyn aka Kryten) on Youtube.

Supply the link and we just might

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

Hi Mart, I knew they had a lot more PV than us but I didn't realize it was of that magnitude (although being further south is also a factor).

End of 2016 Germany had 41GWp v's the UK's 12GWp.

Have a play (random pins) with PVGIS, and you'll find that generation (kwh/kWp) is pretty much the same as the UK, perhaps we are a little cooler?

Don't be like Fox News (around 2.30 min mark) and claim Germany has much more sun than the US!

Fox News, where idiots go to die. :wall:

michaels wrote: »

Doesn't germany arguably have too much solar in that when it is a good day it exceeds 'fluctuating load' so 'base load' that needs to run 24/7 is unneeded and spot prices turn negative?

Too much solar? Not yet.

As per the UK, most leccy supply is on forward contracts, so whilst PV will push down spot prices (and average prices overall), it's only part of the leccy supply that goes low/negative.

Look at the UK, we've recently had a few 1/2hr spot price times that have gone negative, despite there being 5, 10, 15GW of gas still running.

Plus Germany is already investing in storage, so 'too much' becomes 'peak lopping' later on in the day, as we move forward into the future.

Perhaps also worth thinking about the discussions on PV capping for domestic customers, with say 5-8kWp of PV on a 3.68kW inverter - the losses are nowhere near as much as folk first assume, when compared to a years worth of generation.

I appreciate that you believed the posts by 'pro-coal cells' about 'too much' PV, but they truly were gibberish, and even Z seemed to get frustrated with them, which takes a bit of doing.

It was interesting that the National Grid spokesman in the report I saw said that they were nowhere near having issues with the amount of solar there is now or projected to be.

I suspect that by the time we get to German levels there will be more storage available in all sorts of forms, although that might require (edit: positive) government action such as changing the regime for pumped storage and SSE going ahead with Coire Glas, etc.

I've never had a new car in my life, but when I get my next one I hope the second hand market for EVs and hybrids is better. It's interesting that hyundai, for example, have three power trains for their new Ioniq: pure EV, hybrid and a plug in hybrid which is due to have a theoretical range of around 30 miles on battery which must meet very many people's demand for day to day motoring, commuting and the school and supermarket run. From memory the battery of the latter is around 9kWh, so not as much as a pure EV but likely to be bought in reasonable volumes.

As ever with electricity networks it's redundancies and diversity that will help the issue, along with load management, which has always been there from before I started in the ESI in 1976, but which now benefits from the IT revolution. All very interesting.

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Not if you have ways to store it, or markets/processes that grow to make use of cheap leccy.

An amusing conceit there M. :-) At least it's a change from the nuclear proponents who go on about we haven't got enough power and 'how are we going to power all the electric vehicles?'

They always talk as if every EV is going to be charged up fully every day and that that is an inflexible demand. In fact with longer ranges and hybrids charging becomes much more discretionary. The range anxiety of the earlier models reduces and users can wait to take advantage of the cheaper surpluses. I suspect using their batteries as a feed back to grid mechanism still doesn't make sense due to battery life issues, but more dynamic pricing and deferring charging will be much easier.

I don't think some people appreciate the flexibility built in to the new systems. Behavioural change by those of us with PV has only just started (DHW storage, phasing major appliance usage, efficiency improvements, etc.).

Seasonality issues arise, but that's where wind takes over, and the same mechanisms will apply there too.