Johnnie wrote on Jul 29
th, 2020 at 9:20pm:
The bottom fell out a long time ago, get 2 cents a feed in tariff and think yourself lucky, just make max use of the solar panels as often as possible for the good of the planet.
Agreed.
We already have a system here, which is battery-backed. The house runs off PV during the day, while the inverter also charges the battery. Depnding on the time of year, the battery is usually charged by midday or earlier.
Then, the battery runs the house through most of the night.
Next time we do such a system, it will be better-sized so that:
1) There is more battery, so that the house is almost entirely self-sufficient,
2) The excess is entirely consumed (both to charge the additional battery/batteries, AND power the HWS via an appliance relay or similar.
Ideally, we'd want to consume every watt of electricity we produce, and (almost) never tap the grid for any.
On the stuff linked above - esp. this bit
Quote:The reason for this is largely to do with the rampant popularity of rooftop solar, which accounts for more than 1200MW of capacity and is easily the biggest single source of generation in the system.
There's an argument that the existing "players" within the system (Generators, Transmitters and Retailers are trying to protect a business model now being threatened by "alternatives".
Fact is, they "gold plated" the Poles and Wires over many years, and charged all tht to the consumer. Prices rose. Home solar became viable, and people adopted it. Retail electricity prices rose. More people took up solar. Prices rose (again). And they continue.
People will continue to move away from the grid, as solar and - particularly battery - tech. gets cheaper.
Those who remain wholly and solely grid-connected will continue to pay more and more, to make up the revenue shortfall createde when people go "off grid' (or vastly reduce theur reliance on it).
There will come a tipping point, where the business model of the current operators will, shall we say, be "challenged".
Not before time, frankly.