EU blindsided by ‘spectacular’ solar rollout
EU blindsided by ‘spectacular’ solar rollout
Large majority of EU countries will hit 2030 solar targets ahead of schedule, according to new data.
Large majority of EU countries will hit 2030 solar targets ahead of schedule, according to new data.
Thanks to Putin who moved solar from „don’t annoy me“ to a „strategic matter.“ Where is shadow, there is light
This part is interesting:
As solar becomes increasingly widespread and electricity prices plummet in the middle of the day when the sun is brightest, some see a risk that the incentive to deploy solar power also decreases, said Esparrago.
That makes grid improvements and the rapid rollout of storage technologies like batteries crucial, experts argue. But the EU is still lagging behind in that area.
I wonder however how far we are from that? There is probably a lot of incentivising that can be done to get people and industry to use this 'surplus' daytime energy up surely. Its weird because its usually the opposite with cheap night rates - I know many people who intentionally consume energy overnight instead of the day because its cheaper. Flip that on its head maybe that isn't as pressing an issue?
The issue isn't really comparing high noon to midnight. The issue is comparing prices at either high noon (when supply is large) or midnight (when demand is small) to the space in between, especially dinnertime (when demand peaks just as solar supply finishes tailing off). There are ways to move some of that peak into noon (e.g: if homes are well insulated, they can be cooled or heated while solar is still up and used as a thermal battery to at least bridge over to the nighttime hours), but some of the peak is much harder to shift around. If everybody starts cooking and turns on the television around dinnertime, the only way to distribute that is to stagger dinnertime, which is easier said than done for a lot of people's schedules. Having power storage to bridge that gap (wouldn't it be nice if everyone that has an electric car got home and used whatever range they had leftover in their battery to absorb their extra demand and then start charging again at nighttime rather than immediately start charging at the worst time of day. Or having solar plants that store excess daytime power in thermal, hydro, or chemical batteries to discharge and increase supply later) is likely easier than convincing enough people to work odd shifts or delay their after work leisure activities
Batteries will hit break-even with the split on peak vs off-peak electricity starting in a year or two.
Current retail consumer batteries (installation consisting of screw it to a wall and plug in three wires if you have a compatible inverter) are at around $280/kWh or 75c per kWh if you use it daily to load shift for one year. About 15c over 5 years. Halve that and anyone buying on peak electricity in a high-price area is going to be very interested in a battery rather than paying the next two quarters' electricity bills. Quarter it (which is conceivable once sodium ion scales enough to meet utility demand) and average-price areas are looking at it real hard
EVs are hitting $1000/kWh pre-subsidy in the west or $300/kWh in china for the entire car. V2L or V2G becomes very appealing for anyone not using their car during the day.
I wonder what the turnaround time is for some of the more mountainous countries like Switzerland to build out pumped hydro.
A long way away I would guess. People will need more air conditioning during the day. Pretty much need solar on every rooftop to even begin to cover that. By making rates cheaper during the day it means demand will also go up as people run their appliances and charge their cars when rates are cheap.
Once you've got a critical mass of productivity online, it's time for utilities to get out of the business of burning hydrocarbons and selling steady-state electricity- and into the business of capturing daytime surpluses, selling it back to the grid at night
The point, of course, is that there's never been a shortage of energy- only scarcity of readily-available stored power at a given place or time, sometimes
The excuse always has been that there isn't one energy storage solution that takes up minimal space, has the same efficiency, requires little maintenance, doesn't affect the environment, is cheap, and works everywhere. There are tons of solutions that would work but as soon as one of those prerequisites are lacking, the solution is deemed inadequate and we're back to the slow sacrifice of the environment. Anything short of perfection isn't enough to be convincing.
Perfection once again being the enemy of improvement.
Meanwhile in Bavaria...
Die Gröööönen
I'd be damned if I don't upvote a good news the few times I see one