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Originally Posted by conradpdx
Which is the beauty of the the home owners jumping in. Make it a money making opportunity for them and they pretty much remove themselves from the grid (A few batteries would be a good investment) while at the same time adding power to it.
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The problem is that you're maybe doubling the cost to the homeowner. A pure grid-tied system (where any excess goes straight to the grid) might cost $20K. Adding storage batteries & controls might double that cost, plus the batteries need maintenance and wear out, so you have to figure the cost of that...
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Like I said there would be the need for outside power sources, but because you have a smaller customer base (houses producing/saving/selling their own power-nearly eliminated from the equation) the back up system gets smaller which in general means it's more efficient and more responsive.
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I think you're forgetting that residential use accounts for only about a third of the electricty generated. The rest is goes to run business & industry...
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I really don't see how it's that much more complex than it currently is. All power facilities have people and computers watching the systems and adjusting the plants outputs to meet the needs of it's customers. I might get a little more complicated than it is now, but it wouldn't be unsurmountable.
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Not insurmountable, just difficult and expensive. The problem is that you still have to have all that non-renewable generation (or storage) out there for the times when the renewables aren't producing. When some utility builds a power plant, they expect to earn back their investment, and pay for the operating costs, from the electricity they sell. If they're cranking out watts 24/7, they have a revenue stream. If you add a lot of solar, the plant only gets to run at night, so makes & sells half as many watt-hours, but the capital & operating expenses (excluding fuel) stay the same. The utility has to charge twice as much per watt-hour to cover the costs.
Figuring the cost isn't as simple as e.g. looking on the web and seeing that PV cells are going for $3/watt.