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18-06-20, 03:09 PM | #81 | |
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Re: Solar panels
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(My working career only includes c.15 years in power sector, all for electricity transmission and distribution network owners or operators. I spent a lot of that dealing with connection applications to the grid - we had to be neutral on generation technology but it was clear that the dominant renewable technology for generation connections was wind, both in numbers of applications and capacity sought.) Good commentary in general, ethariel, but slightly tainted by this one point that will never be anything except subjective opinion. I think it's more a matter of age and/or upbringing than anything else.
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Spannering the wife's SV650S K5 pointy in Black, and son's SV650 X curvy in Blue. RIP SV650 X curvy, crashed and written off December 2019. I'm (procrastinating about) fixing up an old Yamaha FZ600 to get myself fully back on the road. |
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19-06-20, 09:12 PM | #82 |
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Re: Solar panels
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20-06-20, 08:09 AM | #83 | |
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Re: Solar panels
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I have been looking at gridwatch for quite a while, and frightening how on still cold days in winter when demand around the 40GW level neither solar or wind contribute very much to grid. I have read articles saying that the cost of incorporating and controlling the 'chaotic' energy sources like wind and solar into grid is pushing energy costs up. Read articles years ago from German power industry about if renewables were <25% of your power requirements they were OK and you could allow for their unreliability, but as they become a greater part of the network they were difficult to control and blackouts would become inevitable as well as costs spiraling out of control. At night in California 80% + of their electrical power comes from fossil fuels ( just when all those shiny electric vehicles will be charging ). Look out for huge rises in cost of electricity in future due to costs of incorporating renewables into grid and having to supply grid storage to make solar worthwhile. Putting large areas of black solar panels in deserts could well increase global warming due to absorbing heat and re-radiating / convecting it into atmosphere ( or like scattering soot on snow ), with hydrogen being an 'energy carrier' rather than a fuel the production of it is always going to be very inefficient compared with using electrical energy in electric vehicles.
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2016 SV650 AL7 Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear - Mark Twain Last edited by SV650rules; 20-06-20 at 08:19 AM. |
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20-06-20, 09:24 AM | #84 |
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Re: Solar panels
Yes but over demand can be managed in the future with smart meters by using penalising smart tariffs or localised black outs. You knew that when you agreed top have one right?
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24-06-20, 07:14 PM | #85 |
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Re: Solar panels
I don't yet understand why in this era of universal smart meter why we don't yet see a universal variable tariff based on demand. It costs me no different for the wife to put on the the dryer at 10am as it would cost at 3am.
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25-06-20, 08:01 AM | #86 |
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Re: Solar panels
But they are not though. SMETS1 meters needed a mobile phone signal, so many rural areas ruled out. The new SMETS2 meters are even worse, as some areas rely on an O2 mobile signal (no roaming SIMs) and the rest of the UK needs some propriety radio network that has not been built to cover rural areas.
I've been trying to get on to a time of use tariff for the past 7 month. I'm told SMETS2 meter doesn't work here, so I asked for a SMETS1 meter instead (just take over the working one I have) but they messed up the install of that and now won't come to fix it because of COVID-19. Its a **** show if you do not live in a city - as per ****ing usual. Time of use tariff was intended to see how much I can lower my bills by to see if solar was worth it. |
25-06-20, 10:27 PM | #87 | ||
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Re: Solar panels
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Quote:
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Spannering the wife's SV650S K5 pointy in Black, and son's SV650 X curvy in Blue. RIP SV650 X curvy, crashed and written off December 2019. I'm (procrastinating about) fixing up an old Yamaha FZ600 to get myself fully back on the road. |
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25-06-20, 10:31 PM | #88 | |
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Re: Solar panels
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Spannering the wife's SV650S K5 pointy in Black, and son's SV650 X curvy in Blue. RIP SV650 X curvy, crashed and written off December 2019. I'm (procrastinating about) fixing up an old Yamaha FZ600 to get myself fully back on the road. |
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26-06-20, 08:05 AM | #89 | |
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Re: Solar panels
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AFAIK Economy 7 type tariffs are simply straight forward cheap time periods, most often 00:30 until 04:30. Your dual tariff meter needs to be updated with any change to these time periods, via the data link if it is a smart meter. |
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26-06-20, 06:32 PM | #90 |
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Re: Solar panels
Smart Meter's = Total waste of money, the cost of them in payback terms will never, ever materialise in any meaningful way, shape or form.
However they do have one really important use - The ability to start billing customers Triad charges. Just wait and see, they don't do it now but in the not too distant future they will and simply justify it by stating they will charge more at certain times to educate people to spread out thier energy usage and voila your 1600 - 1900 electricity will suddenly cost 5x as much, just when you pop the heating on when home from work, have a cuppa and make the dinner..... Also on Tidal Power back around 2010 they did look into Tidal Barrages in places like the Severn Estuary, giving a daily 10h worth of generated power, with a possibility of generating some 4,000 to 8,000 megawatts. However due to the impact of no ships passing the Barrage (if its not bank to bank it really does not work very well at all) and the destruction of the mud flats and wildlife associate with it, the whole idea was shelved but in theory at least it could have provided some 20% of the Uk daily energy consumption over the regular 10h tidal period. Additionally several other sites could have a similar barrage built but suffer similar issues with shipping and wildlife so they are a no go too. |
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