About 80% of rooftop solar PV customers do not have batteries. They keep connected to the grid, send their unused power to the utility and receive electricity from the utility at night and on cloudy days. What do utilities do with unused power? They dump it, sell it-- or pay another utility to take it.
In North America, solar PV systems often generate more power than they can use from noon to 4pm. Power demands are usually greatest from about 5pm to 8pm-- when people return home, cook, and turn on air conditioners and TVs.
Our grid was designed to send power to customers, not to receive it from them. Two-way (net-metering) systems challenge utilities to maintain safe frequency and voltage. Net-metering meters also require power. They complicate billing-- and typically have non-net metering customers paying for rooftop solar customers' infrastructure.
Then, all electrical equipment poses fire hazards. When batteries catch fire, their toxic emissions are extremely hazardous. A rooftop solar installation increases a home's electrical connections-- and thereby, its fire risks. If a solar PV system catches fire while the sun shines, you cannot de-energize its panels. Charging EVs overheats nearby transformers-- and shortens their typical lifespan from 30 or 40 years to three.
There's also the question of available land. The U.S.'s total land mass encompasses 3,532,316 square miles. Engineers, please: is that enough land to power the country with solar PVs from November through January?
When solar panels and wind turbines reach the end of their usable lives, they do not biodegrade. Dumping such hazardous waste is expensive. If an energy provider files for bankruptcy (and county commissioners did not require the corporation to post a bond), who will pay to dispose the facility's waste?
As far as I can see, adding new technologies to a 125-year-old electric grid makes it more complex-- not more reliable.
When profit rules the bottom line
Two more items: 1) usually, minimizing ecological damage is not profitable; and 2) investor-owned utilities prioritize profits.
A utility's largest expense comes from employing engineers who maintain proper frequency and voltage; meter readers and billing staff; and from purchasing and maintaining generators, transformers, transmission lines and meters.
Primarily, a utility profits by charging customers double-digit rate-of-return interest on new equipment. To increase profits, investors prefer large power generation plants (including large-scale solar PV and wind turbine facilities) and new transmission lines.
Utilities struggle to incorporate solar and wind-generated power into the grid. They might use a "virtual power plant" to aggregate multiple energy systems and EV chargers. Because of power sources' variety (natural gas, coal, solar, etc.), ratepayers' variety (residential, industrial, hospital) and tariff and billing issues, utilities face complex coordination challenges. Incorporating multiple energy resources into the grid could cost one trillion dollars or more-- and still, it would be vulnerable to severe weather conditions.
Adding virtual power plants, increasing utility-scale solar PV and wind systems, electrifying all vehicles and adding data storage centers could require utilities to double their transmission systems, distribution wires and transformers. This would increase investors' profits significantly.
Environmentally, it would mean bulldozing more wildlife habitats, cutting down forests for solar and wind facilities, extracting ores and water from complex ecosystems, polluting them with toxic chemicals-- and manufacturing more products that do not biodegrade.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
3
2
2
