Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
My payback was 8 - 9 years without the monthly peak demand charge. I compared my hourly usage for the previous year to calculate what it would be with the peak demand charge and it ballooned to about 20 years! You can read about that rate structure that solar users are forced on at the link below if interested. We have a county solar co-op fighting with Lakeland Electric about this fee but their attitude is this rate structure is the future and more companies will adopt it because they can't continue to subsidize solar customers at the expense of non-solar customers.
https://lakelandelectric.com/Customers/Pick-A-Plan/Price-Plans#1526406-demand-price-plan
Which for a place like Florida is a complete crock of bovine excrement. Peak demand comes with air conditioning on hot sunny days. This is precisely when solar systems produce the most and reduce the need for non-solar peak power. Also, should there be that rare very hot cloudy or rainy day the coop is or should be tied to a grid where that peak demand for poweer for a short time can come from Minnesota or Massachusetts.
What this tells me is that the state has a Casper Milktoast regulatory commission that is allowing nonsense explanations for high energy bills. And a political system that allows it.
Without a battery I could not justify the investment and a battery doubles the cost so still not doable here yet.
Our utility is a muni owned by our city and the GM has extensive experience. We are the only utility in Florida forcing peak pricing for solar and one of a handful nationwide but that is expected to increase in the future.
The technology is there, and rapidly developing - not fast enough for Earth, but too fast for the gas, oil, and coal industries.
Fortunately, most utilities can address their replacement needs with relatively cheap NG plants (Coal boiler refits or TG set replacement).
But just tell people that the natural gas from from fracking and watch their heads explode.
You forgot nuclear.
But you also touched on another huge area of non-understanding about electricity generation, distribution and consumption... that of base load.
It’s going to be quite a while before any renewable energy source has the reliable capacity required to address the needs of our base load.
It’s going to be quite a while before any renewable energy source has the reliable capacity required to address the needs of our base load.
If "the people" know that state environmental laws will be enforced and those agencies funded to do their work, it builds the trust necessary to have extraction industries operating in their areas.
So what? Of course no single energy source will be the do all and end all. But solar does now and will increasingly contribute. As will wind. As could wave energy. As will nuclear. And as will natural gas, but to a lesser degree of dominance. And the entire system can be buffered with carbon ion or other emerging battery types. If we subsidized all forms of energy development as much as we do oil and gas; or stopped subsidizing oil and gas and allowing eminent domain by private pipeline companies I suspect we would make progress faster. But some folks don't want that to happen. That old quarterly report, you know.
That old quarterly report, you know.
I don't think you understand what I am talking about.
You're talking about "social licence". Unfortunately that's a fiction of some creative people's mind.
With some folks, you won't get the first syllable of the word fracking out of your mouth before their head explodes.
Note: I'm not making an argument for or against oil or natural gas. My comment applies equally to these as well as hydro, wind farm, solar, nuclear, etc.
I don't think you understand what I am talking about.
... and we are way OT.
Here is a link that explains the basics. We are a long way from relying on renewables to sustain a base load. This does not mean that it will never happen and/or we should not be investing in such a direction, it simply reflects the reality of the power generation/distribution/consumption enterprise today and for the foreseeable future.
And you better hope for a profitable power industry, their stocks are probably owned by your pension fund. I know that I have invested in them.