I know someone who works for the UK Grid. Apparently home solar is problematic due to rapid swings. E.g. a cloud rolls over and suddenly demand spikes without much warning. As it clears, you get a surge of power back into the grid. Unfortunately, the grid was designed for a top down approach. Rapid surges of backfed power can destabilise it.
It’s something that is being fixed slowly, but prying enough money loose for the upgrades is a challenge.
Balcony solar was also initially illegal due to the backfed being dangerous to linesmen. That has now been solved, but inertia is still a political problem.
And just to clarify, I’m all for renewables as fast as we can deploy them. My issue is with the grids not being updated, not with people getting solar etc.
If a few individuals did it, no. Plugging in a 200 watt source would be equivalent to unplugging a 200 watt load. That’s the equivalent of turning off 4 incandescent light bulbs. I think I might have seen the power grid handle that kind of “disruption.”
On the other hand, imagine if 100 million people go out and buy 100 watt solar panel kits. The load on the power grid is going to vary by a gigawatt every sunrise and sunset. A city in which a million people have 100 watt panels will have to handle a variance of 100 megawatts every time a cloud rolls over town.
At the individual level, what concerns me about the “panel you plug into a normal outlet” form factor is that it breaks a bunch of fundamental principles of the power grid, like “sources of power should be sockets not plugs, so that it’s at least nominally difficult to touch live wires.” Having a source of power on the load side of a circuit breaker further rustles my jimmies. I think the only thing that’s going to stop them from causing problems like overheating wires in walls is the practical limit on panel size.
If you’re going to plug solar panels into the grid this way, they’re going to have to be well engineered or they’re going to hurt someone. You don’t want to own one of these if Big Clive has a lot to say about them, and since most of them are going to be manufactured in China…just expect an increase in residential fires as more jurisdictions approve them for use.
I the case of an outage you aren’t totally screwed and there is currently no protection of power generator stations globally against missile attack. No interceptors. Russia looks like its going to go on the offensive. The more people that do this the few people your government is going to have to triage since you will be able to make do.
Maybe. During a good sunshine you will probably generating more power than you use, and so leak power back into the grid. Can be detected.
Here, in Germany, the power net companies claim they’ll look at the roofs when they’re out and about and check if you have more than 2 kWp (probably just more than 4 panels) without registering properly. Up to 2kWp mostly no one cares.
Waiting for these to come to Finland. They still claim that they will disrupt the power grid too much, even though Germany has had them for years.
I know someone who works for the UK Grid. Apparently home solar is problematic due to rapid swings. E.g. a cloud rolls over and suddenly demand spikes without much warning. As it clears, you get a surge of power back into the grid. Unfortunately, the grid was designed for a top down approach. Rapid surges of backfed power can destabilise it.
It’s something that is being fixed slowly, but prying enough money loose for the upgrades is a challenge.
Balcony solar was also initially illegal due to the backfed being dangerous to linesmen. That has now been solved, but inertia is still a political problem.
And just to clarify, I’m all for renewables as fast as we can deploy them. My issue is with the grids not being updated, not with people getting solar etc.
What they mean is it disrupts their ability to have a monopoly on power generation.
The same line is coming out of the regulatory body in Sweden.
I’m getting quite sick of their bullshit, to be honest.
I’m starting to wonder if, apart from a slightly lower power bill, would they notice it?
If a few individuals did it, no. Plugging in a 200 watt source would be equivalent to unplugging a 200 watt load. That’s the equivalent of turning off 4 incandescent light bulbs. I think I might have seen the power grid handle that kind of “disruption.”
On the other hand, imagine if 100 million people go out and buy 100 watt solar panel kits. The load on the power grid is going to vary by a gigawatt every sunrise and sunset. A city in which a million people have 100 watt panels will have to handle a variance of 100 megawatts every time a cloud rolls over town.
At the individual level, what concerns me about the “panel you plug into a normal outlet” form factor is that it breaks a bunch of fundamental principles of the power grid, like “sources of power should be sockets not plugs, so that it’s at least nominally difficult to touch live wires.” Having a source of power on the load side of a circuit breaker further rustles my jimmies. I think the only thing that’s going to stop them from causing problems like overheating wires in walls is the practical limit on panel size.
If you’re going to plug solar panels into the grid this way, they’re going to have to be well engineered or they’re going to hurt someone. You don’t want to own one of these if Big Clive has a lot to say about them, and since most of them are going to be manufactured in China…just expect an increase in residential fires as more jurisdictions approve them for use.
Unless a line side service tap how else would you connect it?
I the case of an outage you aren’t totally screwed and there is currently no protection of power generator stations globally against missile attack. No interceptors. Russia looks like its going to go on the offensive. The more people that do this the few people your government is going to have to triage since you will be able to make do.
Maybe. During a good sunshine you will probably generating more power than you use, and so leak power back into the grid. Can be detected.
Here, in Germany, the power net companies claim they’ll look at the roofs when they’re out and about and check if you have more than 2 kWp (probably just more than 4 panels) without registering properly. Up to 2kWp mostly no one cares.