this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2023
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Rooftop solar 'cannibalising' power prices as Australian generators pay to stay online - ABC News (www.abc.net.au)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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  • Wholesale power prices are increasingly turning negative at times of high solar output
  • Observers say rooftop solar is "cannibalising" electricity prices and hitting large-scale solar hard
  • There are calls for storage and greater daytime demand to help soak up solar production
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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Can you at least legally have solar that doesn't put any power into the grid?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

From what I know the batteries you need to store your own electricity at home are crazy expensive

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, but you don't necessarily need batteries. If you just have a bit of solar, you'll use up all the power it produces as it does that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm sure this has been discussed, but storing your solar energy as potential energy could avoid paying connection fees. Pump some ground water into a raised tank - or hoist heavy objects (large logs)?

Now that I type it out, it seems either dangerous or inefficient or not cost effective. Or all of the above.

Fun to think about, though

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

There was a company that stacked concrete bricks to store electricity, with the point being that on demand the crane could pick up bricks and gain the energy from dropping them down. Hit all sorts of news sites, never heard of it reaching practical use.

EDIT as noted by another commentor, apparently it did.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sure! As far as I know, county and city ordinances permitting, you can be off grid in CA.

However, if you're on grid, and you connect your solar panels to your home electric system, your solar power is now connected to the grid. I don't think you can segregate electricity by source. You could in theory have some of your home powered by your solar and some of your home powered by the grid, separate systems that don't connect, but I think that would be both dangerous and illegal. Maybe you could have an ADU that's totally solar powered while your house is on grid?

And googling today - it's been a while - it looks like CA regulators withdrew their shitty fee schedule and approved a slightly less shitty fee schedule, so good news there 😆

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

There are solar inverters that will just take some load off the grid, but never put power into it for this use case. It's technically connected to the grid but for the grid, there are no downsides or risks.

If the fee also applies to that, it's just straight up stupid.