The world’s power grids are failing as the planet warms
Hotter summers cause spikes in demand for cooling, but upgrades to power infrastructure haven’t kept pace with climate change.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/18013671
The grid needs to be decentralized. More solar on rooftops and neighborhood backup batteries. This would help level out demand.
In other parts of the world this is fairly affordable. In the USA its astronomically higher. I speak from firsthand experience. When installed its wonderful, but is really pricey up-front, and just a small fraction of Americans are both homeowners, and can afford to buy these systems. The Inflation Reduction Act brings the price down from 10x the cost of other nations to just 7x the cost. Its an improvement, but not enough to make these systems widely available to all household budgets.
To be fair this is just if you pay professionals to do it. They charge astronomically out the ass for labor for no reason. The actual cost of the equipment is surprisingly little if you buy it yourself, and installing it is very straightforward and easy you do not need to be particularly intelligent or skilled. I've done about five different systems at this point, two on RVs and three on houses. One of the houses and one of the RVs was my own and the rest are friends that I have helped set it up.
For example with a goal of about 20k spent This bundle gets you 12Kw of inverter output and 30Kwh of batteries for 11k. Then just grab two Of these solar panel pallets for 28Kw of panels. Or Alternatively go smaller with just one pallet and save a bit. Then ofc you will get the 30% federal tax credit on top of everything.
Ask any installer for a similar sized system and it's almost certainly going to be 80k+ at minimum. The only part you may definitely want a professional for is if you plan on roof mounting them, have a roofer come help install the framing so you can ensure no leaks. But for ground mount (or if you are familiar with roofing) even that's not needed.
The actual electrical works is very straight forward. Everything is very clearly labeled, the documentation is very explicit about what goes where. On the solar panel side you're literally working with DC so you're literally only dealing with positive and negative. Even on the AC coupling side when you're talking about an off-grid inverter you're not back feeding into the grid so it's very straightforward. Your house grid goes into the input, and your output on the inverter goes to your panel.
The only stuff to watch out for in the NEC is rules about where your secondary panel for the solar output can be placed, has to be a certain distance from the ground, has to have a certain amount of clearance around it on all sides, has to be accessible, stuff like that but it's all fairly easy to just look up thankfully
Not sure what the price is elsewhere, but I got 6.4 kW solar panels and a 10kW battery backup last year, and the cost was $33k USD. This was in U.S. Midwest (Colorado) and with a local (not National) Solar provider.
I paid cash to avoid the 6% rate loan and additional fees, and I received a $9k tax credit for it this year, bringing the total cost down to $24k. I think this is an expense beyond many Americans, especially since this system could take over a decade to pay for itself, if it does at all.
No point here, just figured I’d point it out so people are aware of the cost. And bear in mind, this is a small system, in a small (just over 1k sq/ft) home.
We absolutely need to address the underlying causes of climate change. However, thats likely not going to be enough for people on the ground.
I just checked my solar panel production and its currently covering all the house electricity consumption (including Air Conditioning), and also pushing back 6kW to the grid. I think systems like this may need to become the norm for all houses with the continued instability of the grid now and in the future.
This. The issue is with the networks and storage. It is quite often the case that enough electricity is produced just in the wrong place and time.
This is becoming an issue in Australia, we have high solar uptake but a lot of systems were installed before batteries were readily available earlier on or without batteries to save outlay. The result is that there is more energy on the grid during the day while nobody is home and the grid highly utilised at night, but there is less people paying utility fees & usage so the grid will soon become underfunded for repairs and expanding infrastructure.
Its not a problem yet but there will be policy and taxing changes in the near future to account for this (similar to fuel exercise tax being shifted from being tacked onto the fuel prices to instead be some tax or licence fee as we shift to electric/green tech vehicles)
We absolutely need to address the underlying causes of climate change.
Guess what happens if the Rs win in November
Oh boy, more tales from a dying planet.
Yes, shit is taking real form now.
I think George Carlin had the best take regarding climat change if I'm not mistaken and it was something along the lines of, "no the planet is not dying we are the planet will be fine after us" and I have to agree have you seen the movies in which humanity dies and the planet it's just natural taking over everywhere, that what's going to happend, we will fuck things up untill we die from our own stupidity and then the planet will heal herself!
Except we’ll take countless other species with us (on top of the ones we’ve already wiped out)
We always have done that and due to use who knows how many species are already extinct! Thing is after we ar out nature will come back and other species will rise up from the ashes!
My $460 power bill in texas agrees I hate it here but my entire support community is located here :(
Here in California, my annual bill is a little over $6500/year, so $540ish/month. I can only use one company and the PUC is about to approve yet another rate increase again (they've never been rejected).
So keep burning that coal.
Wake up babe, the world is rapidly falling apart, but I got us some paper straws, so we should be okay...
The plastic straws thing drives me up the wall.
They had to choose the smallest of possible plastic items to replace with the smallest impact (compared to things like plastic plates/cutlery or something). But paper/cardboard straws SUCK. Smoothies/thick shakes/juices/cocktails, its mush before your done or just straight up bends and snaps when you try to stir the drink after a couple minutes of bing in there.
Plastic straws disappeared immediately but the lids for coffee cups and soft drinks are only just getting phased out now? Its like they did the absolute least possible and went "look at us saving the environment!".
At least bamboo straws and other biodegradables hold up the whole way through the drink.
Indeed, the whole paper straw thing is ridiculous. But let's not forget that poor sea turtle that they pulled a plastic straw out of its nose. Yeah, that was a random one-off, not very likely to happen again anytime soon. If anything, they need to be more worried about fish, dolphins and turtles getting hung up in lost fishing nets...
Back to the stupid straw thing, someone on that other site that we don't tend to speak of mentioned a perfect solution. Use a Twizzler candy, they're hollow and edible once you're done!
Power grids are failing. Sounds like a great time to add millions of EVs, to the mix.
There are so many problems with that article it isn't even funny.
Here are a few:
The answer isn't electric cars. The answer is LESS cars.
