Plug-in balcony solar panels could mean cheaper power. But Canada needs to get on board first (www.cbc.ca)

submitted 8 months ago by Sunshine@piefed.ca to c/canada@lemmy.ca

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[-] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 1 points 8 months ago

Canada isn't just a strip along the US border... "Most" of Canada has lower solar potential than Europe.

It's irrelevant though, the electricity price is by far the largest factor in it being such a weak investment here.

[-] OminousOrange@lemmy.ca 3 points 8 months ago

Ah yes, my mistake, we should definitely be considering the solar PV that's going to be serving the grid in unpopulated parts of the country.

Still, my statement is still true when considering the north.

[-] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 2 points 8 months ago

Those unpopulated areas actually make the most sense for solar PV in Canada, they often either don't have electricity at all, or are using very expensive sources of electricity (like gas/diesel generators)

Here's the problem I'm having. For any of the places along the southern border of Canada, where electricity is cheap as fuck (fuck you Alberta and Saskatchewan), the payback costs on Solar PV (especially at the house scale) are essentially non-existent.

So for now, we should let other countries(along with Alberta and Saskatchewan) buy and install those panels and not have to compete with the rest of the country (which lowers the prices) for the currently limited supply of available panels.

We can install some in those other places in 20-30 years when the tech has gotten even cheaper and it finally does become viable financially.

It's not like BC, Ontario, and Quebec's electricity generation is particularly carbon intense, the are all under 10% fossil fuels already. It's almost all renewables or nuclear as it is.

[-] OminousOrange@lemmy.ca 1 points 8 months ago

AB and SK have among the higher electricity rates across all the provinces, but not by a considerable amount.

I agree, solar (with storage) does make sense for a community not connected to the grid and using generators locally, but a community being there thus makes it a populated place.

Is there a shortage of panels? I had no trouble getting mine and there's been no indication from suppliers that stock is limited.

[-] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 1 points 8 months ago

The average cost of electricity in Alberta is almost twice the value for BC. When doing a calculation for something like solar investment, that's a huge difference.

Production of solar panels is reasonable right now, but still limited compared to the potential demand which is why there's so much investment in new capacity. It's not that panels are unavailable, but there aren't just millions of panels laying around uninstalled either. They're rolling off the line, getting transported, and then getting installed.

The scale of "let's do this for the country" even with Canada being relatively small would end up impacting prices globally.