Solar ... In the news

Martyn1981

A really interesting article about Australia and a potential exodus from the grid as PV and storage gets cheaper.

Rather than the usual fears this considers how to work with PV'ers, keep them on the grid, and even use them to help at times.

Australia: Network lobby proposes special tariff to keep households on grid

Australia's main network lobby is proposing a new tariff for stand-alone power systems that it says will encourage more than one million households with large amounts of solar and battery storage to stay connected to the main networks, rather than lead an exodus.

A new report commissioned by the Energy Networks Association predicts that by 2050 some 10 per cent of consumers – or 1.25 million households – will leave the grid because solar and battery storage will offer a cheaper solution.

It believes that by offering a “stand alone power system” discount, it can provide an incentive for most of these to stay, thereby avoiding added costs to other consumers, who would be required by networks to pick up the revenue lost from households leaving the grid.

The way the SAPS discount might work is by requiring those with significant solar and battery storage arrays to disconnect from the grid at times of “critical peaks” – effectively acting as a load shedding feature on the grid and trying to avoid those pricing surges that are passed on to all consumers.

Interestingly, this very scenario was raised by a MSE poster a year ago.

Perhaps Spain should have taken this approach, rather than trying to restrict PV to protect the leccy generators/suppliers.

Martyn1981

Martyn1981 wrote: »

A really interesting article about Australia

Further to that article, this one suggests paying PV'ers a premium price for their leccy during high demand periods.

Victoria to reward solar households for supply during peak hours

Under the new ‘critical peak payment’, different minimum payments for solar energy will be paid to solar users during different time periods. CEC said these payments would be up to AU$ 0.30/kWh (US$0.23).

Gladman said: “The reality is that solar power users in most states are paid a very low rate for their power during periods when that renewable energy is worth a premium. It makes sense that if the value of electricity suddenly jumps due to heatwaves or other peak demand events, solar users should be rewarded for the electricity they are supplying for everyone’s benefit during these periods."

Reece Turner, consumer campaigner for Solar Citizens, said the plan would result in “relatively modest gains” for solar owners, but will also create an environment for a more representative assessment of the value of solar on the grid.

Martyn1981

The 19th quarterly public attitudes survey is out. Same ole same ole to start, RE is very popular, PV is most popular, fracking is least popular.

Whilst it could be a blip, nuclear has surprised with two quarterly drops that are statistically significant (38% to 36% to 33%).

Public support for nuclear and shale gas drops while solar popularity remains high

michaels

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Further to that article, this one suggests paying PV'ers a premium price for their leccy during high demand periods.

Victoria to reward solar households for supply during peak hours

@I have mentioned this in the past, the current FIT scheme rewards South facing installations the most as they are the most productive but it seems possible (especially as pv increases and there is a midday supply glut as in Germany) that actually E and W facing arrays, although producing 10% less electricity overall might actually produce more valuable power. You would think in this day and age we could pay producers according to the spot value of what they produce rather than an average 'one size fits all' amount?

Martyn1981

michaels wrote: »

@I have mentioned this in the past, the current FIT scheme rewards South facing installations the most as they are the most productive but it seems possible (especially as pv increases and there is a midday supply glut as in Germany) that actually E and W facing arrays, although producing 10% less electricity overall might actually produce more valuable power. You would think in this day and age we could pay producers according to the spot value of what they produce rather than an average 'one size fits all' amount?

Hi. A variation on that argument for less productive PV was made many years ago, and I thought it was interesting.

The suggestion was to increase the FiT rate, but place a cap on the amount of generation it's paid on. So let's say we doubled it, but capped it at 2,000kWh per household.

This would increase the income for off-south properties, smaller rooves, further north etc etc It works against overall efficiency, as it rewards less productive sites, but it would make the scheme more inclusive and encourage more E/W PV.

I'd also be a little careful about the German example, something 'cells' liked to use to criticise the potential of PV in the UK. It's important to note that Germany has a large amount of coal generation, which is slow to respond to demand changes, hence why German spot prices can reduce dramatically at times. But in the UK, most of our FF generation is gas, which can demand follow, so as prices go down, the most expensive gas plants will go off line.

In the long term there may be an issue, but first coal has to go, as that will prop up gas' market share, then we need a huge expansion in UK renewables. By then mid to late 2020's there is a lot of promise for storage or intermittent demand (that makes use of low price leccy).

But don't think I disagree with you, west/south-west facing PV in particular is probably very important.

gefnew

Hi all
a bit on battery tech.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37788436
may have a impact maybe do not know.
regards
gefnew

gefnew

Hi All
Another bit of news this time about Tesla pv roof tiles.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37809151


regards
Gefnew

Martyn1981

The PV news from India is looking good. Their 100GWp by 2022 target still looks tough, but PV rollout is still accelerating.

Thanks to the efforts (early subsidies) around the world, the price of PV is now cheap enough for some who are off-grid to have PV systems installed, bringing power to the people.

Rooftop and off-grid solar to soar in India in 2017, says BNEF

Looks like Asia and Africa are going to be doing the heavy lifting now, installing significant GWp's of PV.

Martyn1981

Gridwatch now has a solar dial, currently displaying 3.3GW and 7.5% of demand (44GW).

There is a disclaimer that the figure is estimated, so the percentage may represent PV / (demand + PV) rather than just PV / demand. Not sure.

Actually, a quick check seems to indicate the % is simply PV divided by demand, so it's 7.5% figure may be slightly overstated - perhaps one for Z to ponder, I may be going in circles.

EricMears

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Gridwatch now has a solar dial, currently displaying 3.3GW and 7.5% of demand (44GW).

There is a disclaimer that the figure is estimated, so the percentage may represent PV / (demand + PV) rather than just PV / demand. Not sure.

Actually, a quick check seems to indicate the % is simply PV divided by demand, so it's 7.5% figure may be slightly overstated - perhaps one for Z to ponder, I may be going in circles.

There is of course no way that they can even begin to guess how much PV power is being generated by individual houses. The figures quoted there are therefore pretty meaningless.