Pros & Cons of solar power

[cronullasharks]

There seems to be so many con men in this industry and shady companies that disappear and then pop up under a new name a few months later in this country I've never bothered. But I'm also an idiot who never gives any thought to long term financial viability.

Long story short, might get it one day.

 

[The binman chronicles]

Possible...yeah; never said it wasn't. Practical for most? Nope, not the way they like to make it sound. You still had to list some caveats for your specific situation to work for you, just like how I listed some in my initial reply. You can't convince me mate. We have about 300 days of pure "make you spontaneously combust" sunshine here and we've all heard the stories from neighbors and/or lived the solar lie. The main thing you have going for you over there is you typically don't have air conditioning use and, if you do, it's limited. With all our sun we still have to use it at scale here to make it work like you'd expect and then you're talking 2k-acre arrays...that's a big Seiko.

I'm a fan of solar but only at utility-scale, not individual...for now, at least. I think I'll be in a home before the dream they sell is a reality. For now it's for folks with first-world problems or people with no domestic power at all who receive it as a gift, if they're lucky.

Like you say, I would hazard a guess that most British people's electricity usage is far less than average American's, but with electric vehicles on the rise it stands to reason that could dramatically increase going forward. Part of the reason why I went for it was my wife getting a hybrid vehicle and her desire to use as little fuel as possible... The install will help lessen the shock of any future price rises in the energy sector for whatever reason.

It's the batteries that are the real game changer for me though, we can charge overnight for under 7p a kw and use that throughout the day, saving paying the 30-50p rate. The sun just helps top up the batteries and sell back to the grid for more than the overnight rate. At first I tried to be as close to 100% self sufficient as possible, that proved tricky given some days you don't produce as much as others and you would have to plan when to charge the car etc. I now take 10-15kw from the grid daily, 95% of that is at the cheap rate. Should that overnight rate change, I can revert, or use a mixture to try and optimise.

Solar is definitely not for everyone, as roof size, shape, what's around you like big trees, other buildings, what direction the sun travels around the property, all go into the mix. If you have a garage or similar that you could use to store batteries, that is something I recommend people should go for. Then decide if that can be supplemented with a solar array.

 

[Daveysgingerlovechild]

Did it directly effect flight independant of the turks?

Whut?

 

[DualityNSNO]

I think I've read viable coastline for hydro, not frozen locked coast.

my mistake.

a million pardons. :/

Which still makes no sense - the coastline is very viable and has quite a number of turbines and panels everywhere? Unless you want them to make bizarre hydroelectric stations in between islands for some reason

Also Greece (~9%), Turkey (~22%!), and Norway (~90%) make a higher % of their power via hydro than the UK (~2%), and Greece has a quarter of theirs be solar, which is understandable - likewise the UK has 30-40% wind (sources go from 30-50%, brexit means brexit though, so info isn't in one place ffs). *

* Source is Eurostat and Ember, mostly.

 

[Tipp blue]

What GOT really needs at 1.30am just before a Bank Holiday Monday is a question about solar panels.

Thanks to the Tories, Brexit, Starmer and most recently the orange turd we're all feeling a pinch in the pocket so I'm thinking about getting solar panels on my roof and battery storage.

I've had a quote to get 11 panels and 11.5kWh battery. They say it'll produce 4,400kWh per year which is roughly the same as my annual usage at the moment. Total cost is £8k which they claim will pay for itself in 4.7 years but as my electricity bill is about £1,000/Yr surely it'll take at least 8 years to pay for itself.

Anyone recently invested in solar and got any hints, tips, pros or cons to share? I'm happy to admit it's not something I know anything about so I need it explaining to me like I'm a 5 year old.

Any solar generated power that you don't use can be sold back to the national grid which is prob why the payback time is less that you calculated. I'm not sure on British rules exactly but in Ireland if there is a power cut you still lose power even if you have battery storage, I'd imigine it would have to be the same rules unless you go totally off grid.

 

[Daveysgingerlovechild]

Gotta hand it to @Rita_Poon, this thread has transcended a mundane discussion of the merits of solar panels for household bills. Takes some doing to move on to geopolitical terrain.

 

[Rita_Poon]

Whut?

don't you 'whut' me!

 

[Jimishorts]

don't you 'whut' me!

You've had a stinker here Poon.

 

[The binman chronicles]

Any solar generated power that you don't use can be sold back to the national grid which is prob why the payback time is less that you calculated. I'm not sure on British rules exactly but in Ireland if there is a power cut you still lose power even if you have battery storage, I'd imigine it would have to be the same rules unless you go totally off grid.

As far as I know it depends on what inverter you have and does it have an offgrid mode. It won't immediately switch to give a seamless supply, but you can manually switch to restore power.

 

[Daveysgingerlovechild]

I've had a few quotes and always felt sceptical about the savings presented. It was always you spend/use x per year and panels will generate x per year thus saving you money. Very hard to get a breakdown of the estimates of power generation for different seasons. Frankly, most if my energy is used in winter, sp whilst it would be nice to not need to buy power in summer, the real savings need are in the colder darker months.

 

[atrottel]

Which still makes no sense - the coastline is very viable and has quite a number of turbines and panels everywhere? Unless you want them to make bizarre hydroelectric stations in between islands for some reason

Also Greece (~9%), Turkey (~22%!), and Norway (~90%) make a higher % of their power via hydro than the UK (~2%), and Greece has a quarter of theirs be solar, which is understandable - likewise the UK has 30-40% wind (sources go from 30-50%, brexit means brexit though, so info isn't in one place ffs). *

* Source is Eurostat and Ember, mostly.

Austria does 40% renewables (hydro, wind, solar and biomass), targeting 100% by 2030. Interestingly, locally it is mostly the Greens who are against the hydro and wind projects (as they don't want to spoil the views at their favourite ski touring and hiking spots).

 

[Little Ralphy]

I looked in to this recently as well. Guy came out and did the pitch. They were more expensive than that though, 8 panels plus battery for about 14k as a one off cost. They also did a mortgage type deal which was a fixed monthly cost but you replaced the battery etc. or a rental type which increased year on year but they replaced the batteries.
They had an AI system which bought from the grid cheap over night, filled up the battery and then you used from the battery in the day, and the power from the panels sold back to the grid at a higher rate - than you buy for overnight.
Tt was factoring in price increases etc. to work out the break even point which was about 8 years.

It all sounded good but our energy usage wasn't really high enough, so I'd be paying more than I am now. Also not sure if I'll still be in the same house in 8 years, so decided against it.

I do like the sound of just getting a battery though and charging it cheaply over night and using from that in the day, if that's an option.

 

[DualityNSNO]

Austria does 40% renewables (hydro, wind, solar and biomass), targeting 100% by 2030. Interestingly, locally it is mostly the Greens who are against the hydro and wind projects (as they don't want to spoil the views at their favourite ski touring and hiking spots).

Most of Europe (even us!) are hovering at about 40%, or pushing towards it currently - I saw that when I was looking up things for Rita earlier

Greens are mental everywhere with blocking obvious projects for nonsense reasons.

 

[Rita_Poon]

Most of Europe (even us!) are hovering at about 40%, or pushing towards it currently - I saw that when I was looking up things for Rita earlier

Greens are mental everywhere with blocking obvious projects for nonsense reasons.

Hebrides, total area, availability for turbines, comparative vs offshore developments.
West coast tidal ranges making use of natural harbours*.

 

[Tipp blue]

Anywho, looking at getting solar for the house(s) too, but can't invest for now so might just prep the cabling while the electricians do their work as we're at that phase of the 'build'. We're much more favourable for it here and I have the space, the problem is funding

Get the cables in for electric car charging point while you are at it, and maybe a 10 square 3 core steel wire armor not connected at the fuse board and rolled up outside, you never know what will come in the future.