[conradpdx]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

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...

Batteries would be optional, it'd be your decision. For some battery arrays would be a good investment, others wouldn't. It could turn out that if I had an array and was a getting wholesale rate payout on the power produced from my array in the daylight hours, I could probably get by with paying for the electricity my house uses at night and still get get a check at the end of the night. Remember it'd be "your" system, you could take or leave the batteries. Start with an array only and with each check add a little battery power.

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...

No I realize this, so lets say only a third of the residential properties are capable of producing just enough power to cover their own power needs. Then perhaps a third that could produce excess power. Right there we've gotten to 22% of the electricity in the nation on renewables. That's not including the power produced by the aprox. 11% that produce more power than they need. If they even produced enough excess to cover half of the remaining 1/3 that has problems producing their own power we are now pushing 27% of the nations power coming from home owners.

Now I know your going to say who can afford $20,000+ grand for a system like this. Well, I'm sure you'd find many a banks willing to lend you money once individual power profits became standard. But honestly, everyday that passes solar panels are getting more efficient and cheaper. There could even be the potential for big tax write offs since one could argue that it's a business venture and thus much if not all the hardware and loan interest could be deductible.

Now factor in that people tend to live closer to the commercial and industrial sections of a town than the power plants do. So how much power is lost when the power is sent a mile or two from house to strip mall compared to power transmissions that span hundreds of miles to the same strip mall.

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.

Screw the investors/owners of the old power plants. They don't give a shot [kid friendly site and all] about us so why should we care about them. If they were stupid enough to invest in new plants in old tech now-a-days they get what they deserve. It's not like they've been playing fair lately -price gouging and fixing the books (anyone remember Enron) and what not. Lets not even get into tax breaks and other perks they take considering they are profitable companies without them. Just like the felons on Wall Street they belong in prison.

Honestly, I think this system would work very well. If by simply making it possible for individuals to invest in an array/turbine and actually get paid for doing it it would take off very quickly. With the current net metering systems that are in place it truly isn't worth it for the individuals.


And I never claimed it to be a cure all, just something easy to make a big dent, or a just good place to start.