It seems too much of a good thing, might be a bad thing sometimes. Australian power companies are complaining there's too much solar energy being generated from rooftop installations. This does not include large solar farms. One third of all homes in Oz now have solar panels. In fact in South Australia, the rooftop installations at times provide more than 100% of that state's electrical needs, forcing them to export the excess supply to other states. Now they're seeking permission to shutoff the solar from the grid to prevent it from overloading! Solar is our future! Don't let Trump ruin it! Source: AEMO wants emergency powers to switch off solar in every state amid fears of 'system collapse' - ABC News
Having solar panels is all good and well but you need to have somewhere to store the power. I generate way more power than I need but if I want to put a roof up somewhere my Dad always says "You won't get many panels up there" and that just demonstrates the thinking of many people. There's no point in generating more than you can store.
That is why a lot of people connect to the grid. The grid not only have more storage, they have daytime commercial and industrial users. In addition, most people choose between solar and wind, so it makes sense for the grid to balance them out. Here in the UK, due to the noise, very little wind power is allowed in cities. Wind turbines are not allowed on top of buildings, largely to their danger to emergency services aviation. How this all pans out is going to be very interesting. The one certainty is that is is going to need to vary a lot between countries. To make matters worse, the US grid is a shambles, In New York alone, they have more transformer incidents and fires in a day, then the entire UK has in a year.
With just a little planning and investment surplus electricity from high solar areas could power aluminum refining….a high electricity demand process. Solar energy is a resource not a burden. Oh yeah, while we’re at it let’s get rid of the dinosaurs…fossil fuel powered plants.
