Solar Power Has an Achilles' Heel... But There's Hope!

Solar Power has really taken off in the last decade, and it's poised to grow ever more in the next decade. But there are some challenges that need to be addressed before it can become the energy source of the future.

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References

[TwoBitDaVinci]

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[ryanwelsch]

In april of 2005 I had a 10.15 KW system installed with 58 Sharp 175 W panels. This produced all of my electricity needs at that time (about 10 MWH/year). In 2008 I added 3 more of the sharp panels to the system. This did not significantly increase my production.
In 2009 I had a 5 ton geothermal system installed and eliminated my oil heating system. This almost doubled my electricity usage. In 2018 I had to take the panels off my roof to replace the expired asphalt shingles with decorative long life steel shingles on the front and stainless steel for the back and under the solar on the front. For less than $2k I upgraded my sharp panels to 52 Mission Solar panels (16.9 KW) and solely completed the install on my last birthday 2/3. I am expecting this new system to produce about 17 MWH/year which would be 100% of my consumption. My original system would have paid for it self by now if it had been functioning during all of 2018. The original system was $72k fully installed. This cost was reduced $45k by my power company incentives and $3.25k by NYS income tax credit. I am very much looking forward to see what my 2019 electric bill will be. I am expecting my upgrade to pay for itself in about 2 years.

[lewismassie]

The really cool thing about energy storage is that there are so many different people working on it. If some of them don't work, it doesn't cripple the whole endeavour

[KrustyKlown]

simply pumping water to a higher elevation, into a man made reservoir, is a cheap energy storage means already being practiced today.

In 20 years there will be plenty of EV batteries at end of life (80% capacity), that will be cheaply sold into power grid energy storage market, with a very long useful life, they can be used until most of the capacity is gone .. 10 to 20 years.

[iggykonrad]

Your comments are exactly what the RV industry is dealing with. Installing solar panes on the roof of motor homes and storing power in lithium batteries for use in times of low solar power. This allows RVer's not to have to plug in and can allow for travel options.

[jerrykew]

Excess electricity could electrolyse hydrogen for ships etc. Better than getting it from natural gas

[yakx]

The Duck Curve is an opportunity, not a problem.

[ericshaffer]

Installed an 8.3 KWh system March of 2017. Enjoyed immediate and dramatic savings on my electric bill. We bought our system outright and unfortunately could not afford the cost of a powerwall at that time but will definitely add it if the price comes down.

[jamesheartney]

On other possible storage strategy is vehicle-to-grid, i.e. using an electric car's traction battery as a storage space, then tapping it at peak times. Rather than a Powerwall, you could store energy in the EV at cheap times and release it during peak times.

As EVs proliferate, and get larger battery packs, this could kill two birds with one stone - clean up the transportation sector, while evening out demand on utility-scale power generation.

[Aerostealth]

Ditch the word fatal flaw and insert the word opportunity. The fatal flaw is that utilities want a monopoly on power production with everyone else being end users. Solar and wind viewed from the point of view of the utility looks disruptive. With solar and storage my home could practically disappear from the grid. The electric utilities need to become more of a arbitrage service then a primary provider of power.

[jacksonbangs]

Jackso. County Fuel Committee just got a grid tied solar system installed. The way this works is that when JCFC needs more power than what is generated from the solar panels, energy is drawn from the grid. When JCFC generates access energy, that energy goes back into the grid earnning JCFC energy credits. These credits can be used when the sun is not shining like at nighttime.

[wobeck]

This guy is a really good narrator. One of the best.

[lylestavast]

You can absorb that excess from solar pretty easily - by reversing thinking a bit. The thought has been to charge EVs at home during the night, yet the excess exists during the mid-day. Get chargers anywhere there are EVs parked, backcharge the power to the user and charge vehicles while the owner is at work, or shopping etc. When there's excess, signal the vehicles to charge to draw it down - same might apply to home battery storage. Other things like raised mass storage systems that can be build anywhere there's a footprint... then drop the masses during off hours. Use it while you have it available by suitable "storage" or consumption demands - in some areas that could be pumped storage too...

[kvjqxzz]

the best solution is to require the solar generators to store their excess electricity locally to smooth their own supply/demand curve locally, instead of impacting the grid. This maximally distributed generation/storage approach is easily the most robust and expandable.

[Eureka]

I am an engineer in a geothermal power plant operation department and I think it is not like that. It is true that base load plant operates almost all the time except if they need to be maintained, but considering the current graph of power demand (in my country, I don't know in your country OK), solar power is very efficient for it captures the duration of the most power demanding hours and the highest energy price. The solar power operates at almost high peak times, except during the 7-8pm when the people are going home and activating their appliances. I think, the data depends on the area/location/grid where you are. And also, base power plant loads can be controlled using control valves, etc. so no need to shut it down. As well as, combination of different technologies like head pumps and hydro-turbines is also feasible in some locations. Note that some companies directly connected to the grid uses the night price differential of energy to their advantage while running their own power plant during peak loads.

[coldfingersub]

In 1979 my aunt and uncle who live off grid in the woods have been using their same solar panels till today and still going strong. They installed them their selves, about five years later They added a small homemade generator converted from a three phase motor 480 V still running today and then about a year or two later they added a Hydro generator coming down for my small stream that flows fast during the winter time when the storms come 480 V. Around the world millions of people have been living off small solar panels small Hydro generators or small wind turbines ever before they really caught on and we’re talked about in the mainstream media. If you would ask these people and their children and third generation using the same solar wind or water power to them it’s every day normal life they don’t know what the big fuss is about it works and it works good if you know how to use it and implement it and it’s extremely easy and cheap to install if your mechanically skilled and have a IQ higher than 40. PS and it’s way more reliable than the large corporate power companies who constantly have brown outs or blackouts people who use a combination of solar and wind or water never know what a blackout is lol.

[xchopp]

Also missed the "tower of blocks raised by cranes" approach to storage: no need for expensive drilling, though the towers might be too ugly for some locations.

[barvdw]

Previously, many set their washing machines and other utilities to function in those low demand hours (typically night and day meters, where night was cheaper), shouldn't we encourage people to reprogram their utilities to turn on the new peak production hours, ie during the day, bringing production and consumption closer together? Yes, there will still be a peak consumption when people arrive back home from work and start cooking, watching television, etc, but at least some can tasks can and probably should be done during the day. If your washing machine could be working when you're sleeping, it could just as easily be working when you're out to work.

[wikusvandemerwe]

It would be interesting if you could plot time-of-day that cars are parked vs driving. EV vehicle-to-grid (and home) systems can essentially give you a massive version of the powerwall whenever you're home.
Home solar can feed the grid and offset power going into the car, for example, at work.
Get to a critical mass of EVs with V2G, and solar charging, and the new massively distributed grid will be much more level.

[arthurvin]

Completelly off-grid in home solar generation and battery storage is the future for sunny states like CA and AZ. I live in Phoenix, and I can't see any reason why I couldn't go off-grid. However, if climate suddenly changes and AZ turns into all-year cloudy - we'll be in big trouble. So, Nuclear power should be always there for backup in case of apocalypse.