Solar power is fascinating stuff, but it’s not cheap compared to dirty old coal powered wattage, right? Turns out, it now costs pretty much exactly the same.
The ABC reports that the Photovoltaic Association (who undoubtedly have a rather particular position on solar power) is stating that the cost of producing power via solar panels has reached the same price as producing the same amount of power from coal generated grid power, a step it calls ‘grid parity’. The report claims that this means that even without solar subsidies (a, shall we say, delicate political matter), it’s now economical to install solar panels on most Australian homes. The rising use of such panels means that costs per panel should continue to drop.
Speaking purely anecdotally, I certainly hope that’s true; I had my home assessed some months back and had to either drop the idea or chop down all my trees as it wasn’t economically viable; I’d love me some solar power. [ABC]
olearymo
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 1:53 PMFantastic news! Look forward to solar being an everyday thing!
ozoneocean
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 2:16 PMThey might be factoring in things like the carbon tax: both directly on the cost of the coal power, plus the costs involved in the mining and transport… So solar probably isn’t really at parity at all, UNLESS all the particular stars are in alignment for it. (taxes and incentives etc)
Unless they let us in on all their calculations and assumptions then this is just an empty statement.
I only say that because I really, really, really want solar to be the main source of energy and believe in it, I even have panels on my house and my electricity is now not only free but also making me money! But I still rely on mains power at night and the panels still haven’t paid for themselves yet.
EckyThump
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 2:37 PMI’d be interested to know how many panels you are running to get free power during the day! We put on 2.5Kw worth of panels around nine months to a year ago, and find that the power generated isn’t actually more than we use during the day, on a good day! Mind we were paying in advance for a long time and we still haven’t paid a bill yet as we’re still using up the backpayed money!
ozoneocean
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 3:06 PMI can’t recal, sorry. All I know is that they’re 8 large panels. All my electrical tech in the house is pretty low power/energy efficient and I mostly use electricity at night (out at work most of the day of course)- this means I’m using mains baseload power more than the solar generated stuff… which is great since the electricity company pays me more for the power I generate than the power I use. So even if I use slightly more power than I generate my power is still free- I usually use quite a bit less of course.
EckyThump
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 3:44 PMHmm, if your panels are standard size, it sounds like a 1.6Kw system, so I take my hat off to your frugality sir!! #]
red t-rex
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 3:17 PMObviously doesn’t have teenagers living in the house! They only use things that run on electricity.
noisymime
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 3:47 PMThat must be some significant power you’re using then! Even assuming that the PV array might only be generating 2.0kW during the day, that’s a LOT of of juice to be getting through.
Granted we only have 1 child (no teenagers), but we only ever break 2.0kW if we have the oven or iron turned out. General appliances (Fridge, central heating fan) plus a PC and the TV on and we still only get to about 1.5kW.
EckyThump
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 4:28 PMThere’s a big issue for me at this point. Unlike the old spinning disks, that we used to have before Energex changed it, I have trouble understanding what the readouts mean on the new one! Before they changed it, the disks generally ran backwards, and quite fast too, but now it appears that the power is running forward even on a sunny day! So to be honest, I really have no friggin idea what’s happening with it! I can only assume it’s being worked out fairly. Probably won’t have a real idea until we use up the money that we paid in advanced!
TSH
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 2:18 PM…except that the power doesn’t flow half the time (or less, if you ever have clouds overhead).
For as long as this planet has a day-night cycle, solar won’t be any good for baseload power. Unless and until we find a good way to store the energy collected – and as yet, battery/fuel conversion tech just isn’t at that point.
Adam C
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 2:43 PMSolar is not a silver bullet but it is possible to build a global solar grid and the sun is alwasy shining somewhere. In addition to that wind, tidal, hydro and geothermal (and solar) combined can easilt produce more power than other forms do today. It only requires the stomach to do so and investment.
RB
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 3:24 PMI remember reading somewhere a proposal to use some sort of heat storage medium (granite blocks IIRC) to store heat collected by reflectors around a solar tower, then using the stored heat to produce round the clock electricity, with the sun topping up the stored heat when it shines… Interesting idea, but again, the efficiency is probably the reason it hasn’t become more mainstream for baseload applications…
Grim
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 3:51 PMAre you thinking of a molten salt pillar for heat storage? They’re building a couple of these plants around the world now. One in the US and one in Spain IIRC.
Steve
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 6:44 PMThere is a solution and it’s Solar Thermal Collection. It’s one of the most efficient means of collecting solar power we have and the energy is used to heat up pressurised water in what’s essentially a gigantic thermos that retains its heat well into the night. As we need electricity, the heated steam is let out to drive a turbine.
bri_cheese
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 10:10 AMSteve is right – solar thermal ftw. Works on the same principle as coal or nuclear, which both use the source to heat water, the heated water drives magnetised turbines, turbines turn to create A/C power. Solar thermal just uses sun to heat the water (which can stay hot after sundown) instead of coal fires/nuclear fusion/gas fires.
Peter Horan
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 7:08 PMAs renewable energy sources such solar and wind power generation have close to zero marginal cost, but a high capital cost, they will operate whatever price is offered for the energy. Adding such generation capacity reduces the requirement for high marginal cost generators such as gas (which can be turned off if the price is low, saving the expense of the gas). Gas will only be used when the price offered is high enough. Increasing low marginal cost generation will lower the cost of energy. This is true whether the sun shines or wind blows or not.
Peter Horan
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 7:13 PMThat last sentence should read: “This is true whatever the weather, because it adds enrgy at a low cost”. (As written, it does not make the point properly).
EckyThump
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 2:42 PMI have a sneaking feeling, that if you haven’t used the Gov rebate system to get cheaper panels yet, you may be too late, at least in Qld anyway! Our 2.5Kw cost under five grand with rebates, and that wasn’t the good German panels either! Even if solar has reached parity, which I seriously doubt, it’s still going to cost a fortune to get a decent amount of panels on the roof! #}
Sam
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 3:41 PMMolten salt storage is one way of providing 24×7 electricity with solar, and it has been done successfully in Spain.
http://tinyurl.com/6zpygx9
EckyThump
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 4:29 PMOne big problem with that! If it gets cold in the pipes it’s useless, and it’ll cost a fortune to rectify!
Althalus
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 8:54 PMApparently water is used in the pipes and that heated water is used to heat the turning it into molten salt, keeping it in a molten state and to be able to store that heat over night. That heat is then used to power steam turbines that generate electricity. Or something like that anyway. There are of course numerous other scenarios in which this is done.
Christian
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 9:42 PMGrid parity my foot!
Maybe with government subsidies to increase the price paid to consumers for solar, and the artificially increased costs of coal to consumers…
Talk about pushing an agenda, and you played right into it Giz. Rubbish!
olearymo
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 9:04 AMAnything to back that up, or are you just standing on a park bench ranting?
Another Aaron
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 12:00 PMI’ve recently moved into a house in north west australia with solar panels for the hot water system.
It took a few months but I’m now used to cold showers when the weathers cold and cloudy and scalding hot showers when it’s really hot out.