SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
In the US, a new solar project is installed every 3.2 minutes and the number of cumulative installations now stands at more than 500,000. For years, homeowners who bought solar panels were advised to mount them on the roof facing south to capture the most solar energy over the course of the day. Now Matthew L. Wald writes in the NYT that panels should be pointed south so that peak power comes in the afternoon when the electricity is more valuable. In late afternoon, homeowners are more likely to watch TV, turn on the lights or run the dishwasher. Electricity prices are also higher at that period of peak demand. “The predominance of south-facing panels may reflect a severe misalignment in energy supply and demand,” say the authors of the study, Barry Fischer and Ben Harack. Pointing panels to the west means that in the hour beginning at 5 p.m., they produce 55 percent of their peak output. But point them to the south to maximize total output, and when the electric grid needs it most, they are producing only 15 percent of peak.
While some solar panel owners are paid time-of-use rates and are compensated by the utility in proportion to prices on the wholesale electric grid, many panel owners cannot take advantage of the higher value of electricity at peak hours because they are paid a flat rate, so the payment system creates an incentive for the homeowner to do the wrong thing. The California Energy Commission recently announced a bonus of up to $500 for new installations that point west. "We are hoping to squeeze more energy out of the afternoon daylight hours when electricity demand is highest," says David Hochschild, lead commissioner for the agency’s renewable energy division, which will be administering the program. "By encouraging west-facing solar systems, we can better match our renewable supply with energy demand."
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 04 2014, @11:03PM
> Firstly they assume that you can feed your spare capacity back onto the grid for credits in the first place, which is not always the case,
It is in about 95% of residential solar installations. Net-metering is BIG TIME nowadays, practically every solar installation now is grid connected.
> secondly that you don't have any local means of storing spare capacity until it's needed, like a bank of batteries
See the point about grid-connected solar, only the people who are literally off the grid have batteries now.
Corner cases really aren't the issue here, anyone who has gone to the effort (and more importantly the expense) of battery installation is going to be know to think for themselves.
(Score: 2) by pe1rxq on Thursday December 04 2014, @11:09PM
Net-metering is big indeed, I am doing it myself. But the price does not go up at the end of the day which would be needed for this theory to work.
As long as that is the case. It makes most sense to maximize output and thus leave my panels facing south.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 04 2014, @11:16PM
> But the price does not go up at the end of the day which would be needed for this theory to work.
Yep. But places like california already have time-of-day pricing based on large intervals, they could refine it a little to encourage people to do installs that better match demand.
(Score: 2) by zocalo on Friday December 05 2014, @12:12AM
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 2) by WillR on Friday December 05 2014, @12:46AM
Or as a realist might put it: "95% of solar installations happen where the political/market conditions favor it. Solar is BIG TIME nowadays in places with net metrering"
Or if you're a pessimist: "95% of US solar panel supply is wasted on ridiculous places like Vermont and Washington, because the hillbillies in the south where all the goddamn sunshine is won't vote for net metering."