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Good news for summer solstice as solar makes 20% of global electricity (www.euronews.com)
submitted 4 months ago by Espiritdescali@futurology.today to c/futurology@futurology.today
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[-] Transporter_Room_3@startrek.website 7 points 4 months ago

Solar prices are still dropping, but not fast enough for me to actually afford it.

I'd love to have a combo wind/solar since I'm in a pretty good spot for it.

Battery storage is also dropping in price. I'm excited to see what sodium batteries will be capable of in a few years.

[-] Wanderer@lemm.ee 2 points 4 months ago

Grid scale is usually the cheapest. I don't actually see how rooftop solar will ever be affordable because grid prices are going to go down also.

Is the assumption that grid costs will be substantial enough that rooftop solar becomes the cheapest?

[-] Auzy@beehaw.org 2 points 4 months ago

Here in Australia rooftop is cheap. Panels pay themself off in 4-6 years

[-] Wanderer@lemm.ee 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

What's the $per kWh for rooftop vs grid scale solar?

[-] Instigate@aussie.zone 0 points 4 months ago

I’m not sure I understand this question - the $/kWh for rooftop solar is $0. It’s free energy from the sun. In fact, a lot of homes generate excess and sell that back to the grid, meaning for the user they have a negative $/kWh price. My friend’s most recent power bill cost -$50 for three months (ie, the energy company paid him $50).

In some places in Australia we have so much rooftop solar that it overwhelms our grid and provides more energy than we need. WA is regularly running base load generation (coal/gas) as a backup but it’s entirely unneeded during the sunny hours. Granted, we have the best environment in the world for converting solar energy into electricity.

[-] Wanderer@lemm.ee 0 points 4 months ago

There is no way you can get free solar panels installed on your house and connected up for free so there is a cost.

A large amount of this cost is labour. Utility scale solar has cheaper labour costs. As prices of solar panels goes down, relative cost of labour goes up.

I don't see how rooftop solar will be cheaper than grid scale solar per mwh

[-] Instigate@aussie.zone 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I’ve not seen a comparison of $/kWh of rooftop solar versus solar plant in the Australian context for the life of the panels, factoring in degradation; posited increase in efficiency of solar PV over a given period of time; individual cost; governmental cost; overall cost; and net benefit to the individual based upon specific usage. If you have those statistics available, please share them.

In the meantime, our rooftop solar is kicking goals and scoring some serious points while our government still debates whether or not to open a new coal-fired power plant. Individuals in Australia are investing not only in their own potential reduced power bills but in moving towards the next generation of Very Low Input Cost power generation that reduces environmental impact significantly.

I personally have an array of 24x panels that generate an average of 72kWh per day. I’d love a home battery to prevent selling cheap renewable energy during the day and then buying expensive power at night, but they’re still prohibitively expensive and at least I’m doing my part to decarbonise the grid while I wait.

What are you doing about your personal power consumption to decarbonise the world?

Edit: I bought my home with the solar panels already intact. I did not pay for their installation, nor have I needed to pay for any maintenance on them. My direct cost for accessing renewable energy has been $0 and I’ve gained significantly from them since then. This is pretty common in Australia these days.

[-] Wanderer@lemm.ee 1 points 4 months ago

I choose a supplier that is 100% green energy

[-] SaltySalamander@fedia.io 0 points 4 months ago

because grid prices are going to go down also

lol

[-] Wanderer@lemm.ee 2 points 4 months ago

I mean grid as in utility built grid solar. Everyone uses the grid so everyone needs to pay for it. But mass development of solar in a field is always going to be cheaper way of building solar than niche solar panel installation on a roof.

[-] Wanderer@lemm.ee 2 points 4 months ago

It's weird that solar has become so cheap, especially in certain countries. China is trying to trade and give loans to as many 3rd world countries as it can and simultaneously it is struggling to sell all it's solar panels.

Why isn't China giving loans to 3rd world countries to build solar power plants?

It seems like a win win for Chinese panels to go to places like Pakistan and Africa.

this post was submitted on 28 Jun 2024
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