This is fun, but utility-scale solar is far cheaper.
It doesn't have to be cheaper than utility-scale. It only has to be cheaper than retail electricity.<p>In other words, it can be useful even if it's not the most efficient way to do it. It only has to be more efficient than the status quo.<p>I don't have thd capital to build utility-scale solar. I do have the capital to install residential solar. My electricity is now cheaper.
There are advantages to distributed infrastructure as well! You mentioned one of the biggest disadvantages.<p>I am thinking along the line of:<p><pre><code> - You can just do it / upgrade it etc
- Robust against central failures for various reasons
- Resistant to those in charge of centralized infrastructure abusing their monopoly</code></pre>
Utility-scale solar might be cheaper but doesn't make my house resilient to grid failures. It also only benefits me when the grid is upgraded enough that ... well, it benefits me.
Plug in solar doesn't make your house resilient to grid failures either. You would need an inverter that can generate an AC output without having an existing one to follow; a disconnect to isolate you from the grid during an outage, batteries to smooth the output, an electrician to install it, and an inspection to certify that it was all done correctly.<p>If you are going through all of that, there is not much benefit to plug-in solar instead of traditional.
Most of the balcony solar packages already include what you need. They include a battery and on that battery is a receptacle that will supply power if there is no mains. The dogtail that you insert into your house outlet only supplies power if there is mains, but the receptacle on the battery supplies power regardless.<p>So when the power goes out you unplug your fridge from the wall and plug it into the battery. In essence it operates like the standard camping battery/"solar generator", a la Jackery et al.
To gp’s point, if you’re going through it all just implement it at your panel/subpanel. Mine does auto switch over to power the entire panel and I only know about it from an app notification. Then I can decide if and where I want to power down usage in the house to conserve battery.<p>Having to plug in individual appliances seems to defeat the entire purpose. What happens if you’re away on holiday? Come home to a fridge full of trash? If power is back, do you even know how long the outage lasted? What about other devices that generally should have nonstop power or are typically hardwired? Sump pumps, HVAC equipment, water heaters, etc.
These panels do not work without the grid.
I'm sure it's cheaper to somebody. But with home solar, I can actually cut my power bill by a noticeable fraction.
It's not and it will NEVER be.<p>Utility companies are not incentivized to lower prices because it means less money for them. Do you remember when power companies told people to conserve power and then people successfully did this? And then they raised rates because they weren't making enough money? This happens in California ALL THE TIME. I've lived here 30 years in Silicon Valley and it's the biggest scam that no one talks about. It happens with electricity and water. With water its even more egregious because they told us to conserve water because of the "drought" but once the drought was over, they raised rates because people weren't using enough water. My connection fee to water is over $100/month without spending a drop of water. That's why I stopped conserving water and water my lawn every single day because it turns out that my water costs are only about 1/3 of the actual water bill costs so fuck it!<p>It's the same playbook over and over again, there's no incentive to lower rates at all because it's an easy way to make money over an entire population of tens of millions of people.<p>Now PG&E is fighting to charge solar panel owners $100+/month just for the privilege of being connected to the grid. That would make having solar panels even more expensive than not having solar panels which is utter hypocrisy but no one seems to care or point this out. It's a complete and utter scam.<p>EDIT: I forgot to mention last year the rates were $0.37-0.45 per kWh, until this year when they implemented a base fee of $25/month, so they lowered it to $0.33-0.45/kWh. Rates in Nevada are 1/4 of that.<p>2015: $0.17-0.33 per kWh<p>2020: $0.24-0.38 per kWh<p>so prices have more than doubled in 10 years. Fucking criminals.
I live in Florida, and I'm building a water battery, so I can freeze it at night when electricity rates are cheap, and use it to cool the house during the day.<p>The day after the system goes live, they'll probably announce flat rates for any time of day, just to f' with me. :(
You wouldn't happen to be sharing this builds information publicly would you? I can fully respect however if you are not.<p>I am a staunch DIY serial entrepreneur techie that has used my grey goo to build and sell a few companies and my time now is spent similar to yours although using a different application of physics. I too am motivated, just as you are, in my efforts to apply what I know to further reduce my energy costs which will not stop rising for quite some time.<p>You really made my day with this post and I hope we can find more folks like ourselves from your share because in time 'dogfooding' new ideas at home will lead to new applicable discoveries for all.<p>Stay Healthy!
Problem is for most of USA utility scale = utility profit for share holders.<p>For example Duke is for profit here in Florida, and charges about 25% more per KWH than OUC that is a public utility.<p>This leads to pricing where on one street your power bill is $250, but one street over its $200, often coming from the exact same power plant.
It is easier to find a million people with a few hundred euros and a sunny balcony than finding one dude with a few hundred million euros and land on which building a solar farm is permitted.
Last I checked the biggest cost in the electric bill is transmission, by a wide margin. Home generated power however small helps everyone.
Isn’t it backwards? If everyone had a little bit of home generated power, then the actual energy part of the bill becomes smaller, and the cost of transmission becomes an even greater fraction of the total cost.<p>And since transmission cost is typically bundled with the energy cost, it means the final retail energy price has to go up to cover the transmission cost.
Where I live we have Time of Day electricity pricing where the prices jump 2-3x during high demand. Panels conveniently produce the most power around this time, so this can save people money.
We should build now in anticipation of drone warfare. Utility-scale solar is easier to take out. Same as natural disasters.<p>The more stable you think the future will be, the more you want to capture the efficiency of central power.
By that logic literally everything should be distributed. That's going to be a big undertaking to re-architect our entire civilian infrastructure against that.<p>I'm not saying you're necessarily wrong, I just don't see society taking that measure until it's either 1) cheaper, or 2) the threat moves from being just a threat to reality.
> 2) the threat moves from being just a threat to reality.<p>Completely agree. But I'm already there. Large scale economic disruption has just started. For that to remain peaceful over the next few decades would be a miracle. So we should plan for disruption, for which energy decentralization is a keystone, and the technology to make it practical is here.<p>California has a 600 MW Virtual Power Plant composed of Tesla Powerwall batteries in 85k homes. Central control of distributed generation removes a lot of inefficiencies. Household excess is available to the whole system.