[clug] OT: Solar power recommendations and advice

[Kevin Pulo]

On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 02:42:32PM +1000, Alex Satrapa wrote:

> On 20/04/2010, at 14:17 , Kevin Pulo wrote:
> 
> > Except that by doing so, you'll drive the price differential down
> > to zero.
> 
> Only assuming the continual use of fuel-burning power plants.

No, this is just economics.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbitrage

If everyone started buying up cheap off-peak power (to charge their
batteries), then off-peak demand increases.  Off-peak power isn't so
off-peak anymore, and so it correspondingly isn't as cheap, ie. the
off-peak price increases.

Similarly, if everyone started selling the power from their batteries
during the peak time (and getting peak prices for it), then supply
would increase and so the peak price would go down.

This continues until the two prices meet, when people may or may be
bothered doing it.

> As a short-term project, getting smart grid and distributed storage
> into the community is a way of smoothing out the demand so
> fuel-burners can run more efficiently.  In the long term, getting
> smart grid and distributed storage into the community is a way of
> smoothing out supply so wind and solar can provide the required
> energy.

Yes, this is what I was getting at - the effect of the price
convergence is to smooth out the supply and demand imbalances, which
is a good thing.

Kev.

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