Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

gefnew

UK households to get £15bn for solar and green tech to lower energy bills - BBC News
Seems like it will be a costly effort so the sham companies win again.

michaels

gefnew said:

UK households to get £15bn for solar and green tech to lower energy bills - BBC News
Seems like it will be a costly effort so the sham companies win again.

Any details on who is eligible for what.

I fear that the zero percent interest deal which no doubt will only be for certified installs will actually make the overall cost higher than currently.

NedS

Again, I REALLY don't understand why they do not make this compulsory for all new builds (and sizeable renovations) as part of planning regulations. Make it compulsory to fit heat pumps, solar and batteries to all new build homes, the additional costs on a new home would be negligible.

Netexporter

I gather solar will be compulsory on all new builds in future.

debitcardmayhem

Netexporter said:

I gather solar will be compulsory on all new builds in future.

Flats ? 12 stories who gets the benefit?

NedS

Netexporter said:

I gather solar will be compulsory on all new builds in future.

Although that would be progress, at least in helping reduce bills for homeowners, without battery storage it will only further exacerbate an already overstretched grid by increasing the midday over supply saturation. Without battery storage to shift some of that oversupply to offset/reduce the evening peak, it just makes things worse from a grid perspective. Solar and some form of BESS really need to go hand in hand, and how effective will solar be in reducing the energy bills of typical households once SEG rates fall off a cliff due to oversupply from all this additional solar. Solar makes far less sense without high SEG rates and/or battery storage.

Netexporter

debitcardmayhem said:

Netexporter said:

I gather solar will be compulsory on all new builds in future.

Flats ? 12 stories who gets the benefit?

I'm fairly certain I've seen systems that divvy up communal solar. Otherwise it could be used to offset the communal supply.

michaels

NedS said:

Netexporter said:

I gather solar will be compulsory on all new builds in future.

Although that would be progress, at least in helping reduce bills for homeowners, without battery storage it will only further exacerbate an already overstretched grid by increasing the midday over supply saturation. Without battery storage to shift some of that oversupply to offset/reduce the evening peak, it just makes things worse from a grid perspective. Solar and some form of BESS really need to go hand in hand, and how effective will solar be in reducing the energy bills of typical households once SEG rates fall off a cliff due to oversupply from all this additional solar. Solar makes far less sense without high SEG rates and/or battery storage.

I am surprised there is no move to make SEG 'agile' or at the very least Time Of Export dependent.  Moving from due S to due E or due W loses about 12% of annual generation but might actually be more valuable in terms of both own use and also export - without resorting to a battery.  I guess if someone had a set of half hourly historic price data it would be easy to work out whether lower gen but at better times might be worth more?

Edit: Of course with the CfD method of contracting solar the incentive is to maximise output without a care for the economic value of the output.  You would hope the govt had actually thought about this when running the CfD rounds?!

Edit2: Perhaps the same is even more with regards to panel tilt angle - too steep might reduce overall generation but increase generation in autumn and winter when it is economically most valuable?

Martyn1981

Netexporter said:

debitcardmayhem said:

Netexporter said:

I gather solar will be compulsory on all new builds in future.

Flats ? 12 stories who gets the benefit?

I'm fairly certain I've seen systems that divvy up communal solar. Otherwise it could be used to offset the communal supply.

And also wall mounted PV now that it's PD. Hopefully not much shading at the 12th storey.

theharebreaks

NedS said:

Netexporter said:

I gather solar will be compulsory on all new builds in future.

Although that would be progress, at least in helping reduce bills for homeowners, without battery storage it will only further exacerbate an already overstretched grid by increasing the midday over supply saturation. Without battery storage to shift some of that oversupply to offset/reduce the evening peak, it just makes things worse from a grid perspective. Solar and some form of BESS really need to go hand in hand, and how effective will solar be in reducing the energy bills of typical households once SEG rates fall off a cliff due to oversupply from all this additional solar. Solar makes far less sense without high SEG rates and/or battery storage.

In terms of the midday over supply.  Does anyone know if any systems exist, to say only charge batteries during the peak, while also meeting the house demand?  During the summer my battery would be fully charged by around 10am, with my system exporting the rest of the day.  I would be more than happy to have my battery charge say from midday onwards during the peak solar generation perdiod, as long as the features were available and it did not financially disadvantage me.  This would mean that during the early morning period all my generation is exporting (after meeting house demand) rather then charging my battery, with the battery being charged midday onwards, reducing the export to the grid during peak generation.  No idea what would be involved in terms of updates to inverter/battery systems to allow setup.