Closer to Solar Power than we've been assuming?

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http://reneweconomy.com.au/2012/why-generators-are-terrified-of-solar-44279

If it's true, I'd love to see it get off the ground.

I can understand the 'concerns' of the existing utilities, but phasing out past technologies, along with the tough economic transitions that come with it, always happens.

 

Not likely. The only reason alternative energy (sun, wind) is anywhere near competitive is giant government subsidies which are now drying up.

 

Sorry The truth hurts sometimes...

 

Maybe.

I've also heard it that Germany is experiencing problems cause of the influx of Chinese competition:

http://www.cleanbiz.asia/blogs/chinas-solar-industry-fine-state-affairs

Maybe it's still an open question.

 

Heh, BTA beat me to it, the subsidies are the only thing that makes solar an appealing option. Take that away and the majority of people wouldn't even dream about putting panels on their roof. Here the subsidised prices for produced electricity are currently guaranteed for another 10 (IIRC) years but it's anybody's guess what'll happen after that. My guess is they'll be removed completely at that point. So anyone putting them up now is catching the last profitability train as it's likely that subsidies for new installations will be drastically reduced or removed altogether in another year or two, maybe even sooner.

Going solar in Germany was due primarily to political pragmatism. Germany's been going "Eko" before most of the Europe even knew what that meant and the eco groups have been lobbying for the shutting down of the nuclear power plants for decades. It simply got to the point that a significant chunk (if not the majority) of the population started demanding that all the NPPs be shut down, especially after the Fukushima disaster. So the political decision was made that all NPPs across Germany are going to be shut down and replaced with safer means of power generation - no matter what the cost. And it's a decision that's going to be biting Germany in the ass for a very long time unless it's repealed. Everyone was jumping on the solar bandwagon for as long as the state was literally handing out money to anyone willing to put panels anywhere on their property, but obviously that's had to end sooner rather than later.

The cold, hard truth is that in the long run NPPs produce by far the cheapest electricity... but also at the highest risk.

 

Oh, there are plenty of articles about this; I just grabbed the first one that showed up in my Yahoo search.

 

I can confirm that, it's a well-known fact. Has been for quite some time. I read a lot on the subject as we've got a similar situation with subsidies here and the fact that it's a money sink has become readily apparent.

 

Here's an article about the subsidies here in California. It's a good deal for the people installing it; a pretty bad deal for the taxpayers and the ratepayers.

 

And how many rainy, cloudy, foggy, etc. days does Florida have? I bet nowhere near as many as central Europe. In my microlocation we can go for months without direct sunlight for example. Especially in the winter months it's not uncommon to have clouds or fog for several months on end. Not to mention that temperatures are nowhere near Florida.

Effectiveness of solar panels is the greatest when you have a considerable amount of direct sun all year round. Here the majority of strong sun happens only in 2-3 summer months and that's it. Basically, when you least need it for heating water, for example.

 

Heck no, you don't need anywhere near as much power to cool a building down via A/C than to heat it. You're lowering the temp much less in summer than raising it up in winter. And you also don't need A/C every day here in the summer.

And in summer you shower with cooler water than in winter and there are also many more opportunities to do it either via outside showers (free warm water via sun-heated containers), pools, etc. And, of course, it depends on how you use water boilers... most of the time we only turn them on at night during the cheaper electricity rate and use it up during the day.

Here, mainly oil, wood, then gas, district heating when available, then electricity (mostly heat pumps). But that varies from country to country. Most houses here still have old oil-fired furances from the times when oil was cheap, but with the current prices pretty much everyone still on oil is looking at switching away from that.

That'd be wrong, as electricity is the most expensive heating option (unless we're talking heating pumps). And the climate here is certainly different. We can have very hot summers when the A/C is going 2 months straight, or summers where we maybe need it only a few weeks. It varies from year to year.

 

I see, that is quite different then.

Water boiler = heater. And yea, we turn it on and off as needed. But most people don't do that here either, either because it's inconvenient or because they need it to run 24/7 (especially the case with smaller ones). A good chunk of the time we don't need it constantly on though so why waste money on it running during daytime? It's always running whenever somebody's taking a shower or bathing though.

Incidentally, unless your dishwasher or washing machine have a hot water connection (here only the most expensive models do, and most houses only have cold water connections for these machines), they heat their own water internally.

We've only become generally aware of heat pumps around here in the last 5 years or so. They're quite popular these days but still pretty much "exotic". They're still very expensive for our budgets. But until a few years ago when oil and gas prices started skyrocketing very few people would consider them given the substantially higher investment and relatively poor COP with most of the affordable models, so 5+ years ago you'd be hard pressed to find one in every town I expect. It used to be pretty much oil, gas or wood for individual houses. Also, very few houses had underfloor heating. It used to be pretty much radiators only except for the last 10 years or so.

Here, the concept of a "heat pump neighbourhood" is non-existent. Pretty much every house built up to mid-90's or later had an oil or gas furnace by default. It was simply the most economical & convenient option at the time. Given the oil prices today though, only LPG is more expensive.