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Wow, now that's a feed in tariff rate! In what universe does that make sense (other than for the homeowner, of course)?
but then Ontario has been able to retire all coal fired plants.
It used to be even higher (over 50 cents) and these are 20 year contracts too. This is not without controversy. The difference between market rates and the FIT rate get thrown into a bucket and socialized across all customers as a kind of "tax" on the bill. The idea was to make the payback for customers come out to something like 7 years, and as the capital costs for solar PV goes down, so does the FIT rate (which is adjusted roughly annually) to keep the payback time-frame the same. There are similar incentives for larger scale renewable projects including wind, micro-hydro etc. The cost of electricity has really shot up here due to policies like this made by our government and imposed through the regulator, but then Ontario has been able to retire all coal fired plants.
The way California has squared the circle without massive public backlash is that they have an extremely progressive rate structure for electric use. If you live in an apartment and use just a little bit of electricity, you might pay $0.12/kWh, but folks with a suburban home will pay $.40/kWh in the summer.
You're sending somewhat mixed messages.... so you're in favor of remaining tied to the grid for back-up but it's not worth exporting to? The equipment required to export is CHEAPER per kW than the equipment required to be off-grid... what am I missing?
My brother lives up in Riverside and I was looking at his bill a couple of weeks ago. Surprised to see his rates were actually lower than mine in Ontario, Canada. Riverside is a municipally owned utility and not part of SoCal Edison, so that may be a part of it. No TOU either... just a two tier rate.
I'm out of my expertise here, but I think it's the case that if you use Grid-tie inverters, then you lose all power if your grid connection goes down. If you lose power much, keeping the systems independent could have value as backup.
> We are working on a circuit to prioritize charging the cars, second feeding the house and only any surplus going to the grid. [Johann Koeber]
Why bother going to the grid at all considering the extra circuitry, cost, regulations, billing issues etc? I'm guessing because you have already built your system and established the new contracts with the power companies. If you were back to step one (planning) would you do it differently today?
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Anyway... grid-tie inverters do need a 'grid' to operate.
Not entirely true as the SMA Sunny Boy TL series has a secure power feature. It is not perfect but if the grid is down I can throw a switch on the inverter and have two 1500W circuits available for back-up power. You can see detail on the driving on sunshine poll. And if you have not voted yet please do so. Driving on Sunshine - Page 7
SUNNY BOY 3000TL-US / 3800TL-US / 4000TL-US / 5000TL-US / 6000TL-US / 7000TL-US / 7700TL-US
While I agree that your calculations make sense, maintaining the grid is itself a huge expense. Currently that cost is shared among nearly all electric power users, so the cost seems quite manageable, per person. If most customers are 80-90% self-reliant, though, that huge centralized expense has to be borne by the remaining 10-20% of usage, and so the unit cost of the central grid will rise 4x or more, which makes going off-grid completely look even more economic. This "death spiral" is what has some utility executives and commissioners very worried.To me the grid is the giant battery (unlimited capacity) that I am missing. When stationary storage becomes feasible, it might be replaced 80-90%.
100 % would be too expensive. And unreliable. What if my inverter breaks? The grid is my backup.
The problem with off grid is that you need to size your batteries and PV system for the worst case scenario of a string of rainy days in the winter. Not feasible, really.
I natural gas generator can handle the few days in SoCal that are cloudy.The problem with off grid is that you need to size your batteries and PV system for the worst case scenario of a string of rainy days in the winter. Not feasible, really.