175 sats \ 3 replies \ @petertodd 23 Jul \ parent \ on: Can Solar Rooftops Power the World? econ
“Over production during the day which can actually damage infrastructure”
Only if the infrastructure is terribly designed.
Grid frequency naturally goes up and down slightly as power is over and under supplied. It is not hard to build solar inverters that automatically disconnect from the grid if power is being oversupplied, based purely on grid frequency. If that's not happening, the root cause is bad management and regulations.
edit: an interesting example of frequency shifting being used to intentionally turn off solar inverters: https://www.provisionsolar.com/general/grid-outages-and-the-magic-of-frequency-shifting/
The infra was not designed for solar in places like California. I was just watched an interview with the grid operator in California describe this very problem a few weeks ago. Its an actual issue. Its not like you can design something that has no edges or limits. Damage to the infra is only one issue though. There is the fact that energy is not being harnessed. Hence the need for batteries. But batteries lose power over time as well.
A similar problem arises in places that are adding nuclear plants. Was listening to a Canadian engineer discuss how they have so much power generation from this new plant they are looking for consumers to avoid overloads.
These are all engineering problems to solve and ones that can be solved but most people are not aware of the reasons why governments are decreasing their solar incentives. Central planning is really at the center of all this.
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Part of designing good infrastructure is figuring out how many watts worth of solar can you permit given existing infrastructure; pretty much every grid connected solar installation has been permitted and approved. There will inevitably be a handful of illegal installs. But they're on a small enough scale that they aren't relevant.
If California has screwed that process up, their infrastructure is terribly designed. Most likely due to political reasons, by politicians wanting to meet solar install goals without wanting to spend the money to accommodate them.
If you are willing to spend that money, there is no technical reason why you couldn't put solar on every single roof in the nation. Oversupply conditions are a very solvable problem.
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