Green energy. Finally may start to make sense.

johntheexpat

Tosh.  Your view, the objection to change, is by far the most unrealistic view.  Things must change.  Things will change.  Objecting to change and not encouraging change is unrealistic in the extreme.

Trollslayer

Unwatching.

Sonic67

It means if you are wealthy you can now have a big house in the middle of nowhere, not connected to the grid, run it off lots of solar panels and batteries and ordinary people will be subsiding it. That's it. It's not greener as it brings with it new issues. That's it. It doesn't work out any cheaper unless ordinary people are subsiding it for you.

EarthRod

Midwinter is the time when most energy is required in a typical family home in the UK. Midwinter is the also the time when solar panels are at their most inefficient.

The national grid serves a purpose, it works and provides reliable power all the year round 24 hours a day. It is flexible and versatile. Any type of power source can be connected to it and anyone can use it.

Go to any hot country where strong sunlight shines all the year round. Are houses covered in solar panels? No.

johntheexpat

The National grid is creaking at the seams.  The power generating capacity of the UK is pushed to the limits during the coldest spells.  What is being done to alleviate these problems (and they are problems)?  No new nuclear power stations are being built (EDF have the option of build four, if they want and it looks very much like they don't want, at the moment).  The current stock of power stations are ageing rapidly.  Sure, they can be replaced quickly with gas turbines, but if you put all your generating eggs (or most of them) into one basket, then you are asking for trouble.  The best way ahead is to reduce demand on the power stations and the grid.  How do you do that?

Firstly, you insulate, insulate and then insulate some more.  Then you become energy efficient. (Light bulbs, AAA fridges and white goods, and (good old EU!) energy efficient domestic appliances like vacuum cleaners.

What then?  How do you reduce the pressure on the grid and power stations?  The most obvious answer is less customers.  Get them off grid.  Get them self sufficient and disconnected.  With subsidies if that does the job, because energy security benefits everyone, so its not unfair if everyone pays a bit towards it.

Solar panels are unfair, because everyone pays for them through their electricity bills, but not everyone can benefit from having them.  And no-one benefits from increased energy security because solar panels don't add to it. They generate electricity when supply is plentiful and don't generate any when its most needed on a freezing cold winter night.

Efficient storage of solar energy, undoubtedly backed up by other sources of power, like fuel cells and heat exchangers, can potentially offer enough flexibility and storage to enable people off grid.  And so, finally, solar power may start to make sense.

johntheexpat

The Grid is reliable, at the moment.  But stories abound that it is under pressure and under resourced.  It may well soon be unreliable.
Capacity is also looking dodgy.  Ageing power stations and not a lot being done to renew the stock.

And how many really sunny countries have the need or the money (especially the money) to invest in solar power?  If they are filthy rich due to oil and gas, they don't need solar.  Otherwise strong sunlight all year round is mostly associated with relative poverty.

EarthRod

Deflection does not win any points.

johntheexpat

So, if you (all) assume that the grid is fine for the foreseeable future and their are no generating capacity problems on the horizon, then no worries.

If there are capacity and supply problems, how do you (plural)  propose to fix them?

stephenc

I have both Solar PV (4kw in an east/west orientation) and solar thermal. I work from home and I'm able to time the use of my appliances with the sun etc. So, I try to use as much of my generated electricity as possible. However, I know a lot gets "wasted", i.e. exported back to the grid.  So, for me a battery would be great, store it up and use it at night when cooking, watching the plasma and home cinema.

But, at lets say £2500, for 10 years, issues around lithium batteries and the environment with regards to getting rid of them or recycling etc, for me right now, it's a no go.  The main reason, my electricity bills are about £360 a year, lets say it removes that 100%, I only start to get a return on my £2500 investment after 7 years, not good enough for me.

A few more years, cheaper tech and I'll be in, but not right now.

DOBLY

All new-builds should have mega insulation and the ability to partly power themselves - that should be law.  I hope to build at some point in the next x years, and hope to be not reliant on the grid, if at all possible - Tesla's batteries might help in achieving that, by smoothing the peaks and troughs of generation and consumption.  Yes, there are issues about the embodied energy used in creating these new products, and the downside of having to use yet more energy to recycle them at the end of their life.  By combining things like solar, wind and biomass, future new-builds should be so little of a burden on the established grid as to not make the existing problems worse.