Solar Surplus: What SHOULD Utility Co's Pay

"2. Double efficiency and you cut cost by one-half. It is very cost effective for a utility to make use of electricity put back onto the grid. This avoids construction, maintenance and personnel cost."


(Nice post skruse btw)

I do however quibble a bit with the above phrase. The notion is correct by I think the multiplier is wrong. We used to use the phrase in the PV world that every dollar spent on conservation would reduce PV cost by about ten dollars. With the recent (temporary) drop in PV prices has probably changed that to perhaps $1/$8.

At the margins, conservation comes at some considerable cost, like upgrading HVAC to ground source or hot water recovery, but even those costs are small (relatively) to the cost of a PV system to power an inefficient system.

One other often overlooked notion is that of using electricity for what it does best, and using other fuels for what they do best. For example, it it possible to build a system to use PV to run a kitchen range, but the KWH that that range uses to produce BTUs, might be better produced with natural/propane gas.

Another example is installing solar hot water heat. (Assuming you don't use hot water capture from the HVAC system.) Solar hot water comes at ~1/2 the cost of PV for a bigger benefit.

 

the remark about correctly sizing the solar or wind options i can understand and if it gets more people to take the plunge, then i am all for it. but i think that oversupply will be useful in the future when storage technology gets better. instead of sending surplus to the power company, just store it onsite to use later.

 

Like into EVs and plugin hybrids,,,which can in turn transmit their power in either direction, to the gird at times of peak demand, and into the car batteries at times of surplus. Win/win/win.

 

oh yes, and after more renewable power options come on line, more and more uses for it will arise as well. last night we suffered thru a major power outage. a substation went out disabling power for nearly half the town for 3-5 hours. it happened right at quitting time, so my much longer afternoon commute (its about 14 mins in the morning 20-30 mins in the afternoon) stretched to over an hour because every traffic light was out so it was 4 way stop at each one.

so when we got home, we did what everyone else did...went out to a part of town with power and ate dinner. we were lucky enough that power was restored (still dont know what happened, but definitely not weather related) relatively quickly. well it would have been nice to stay home instead and run on reserve...but that day has yet to come, but it is most definitely coming

 

I know this is an older thread, but I thought I would
contribute what the rule is for Missouri. The below
excerpt is from DSIRE, the database for state incentives
for renewable energy.

"Customer net excess generation (NEG) during a given month
is credited to the customer's next bill at a rate at least equivalent
the utility's avoided-cost rate. Any NEG remaining at the end of
a 12-month period is granted to the utility with no compensation
for the customer."​

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Net net (like my pun?), we in Missouri get zip, zilch, nada,
for anything we produce in excess of our 12-month usage.
That strongly incents you never to approach building
capacity that is 100% of your current consumption.