Solar power overload
The pace of residential solar cell installations, currently running at some 2,500 per month, provokes anxiety:
West Australians are signing up to sell excess power from home solar panels at such a rapid rate that there are fears they could overload the grid and cause power surges that destroy household appliances.The law of unintended consequences in action.
posted by Anonymous at 4:16 PM |
1 Comments:
I have just put in a solar system. It is a case of offsetting electricity price rises by contributing to the problem.
Anyway, on a gloomy rainy day last weekend, my 2.8KW/h system was generating 0.4KW/h.
That is what baseload power is going to have to deal with - compensating for solar infrastructure (that is intended to account for 20% total supply) that varies 10%-100% capacity in the middle of the day. In other words, 18% of the (eventual) total grid supply could switch off when storm clouds suddenly roll in, then suddenly switch back on again when past.
To be perfectly honest, I am amazed Energex (or WA equivalent) are only now coming to terms with this problem.
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