Solar conditioning
The Australian grid operator, Ausgrid, is about to start charging people to export their solar power to the grid during daylight hours.
This because there’s too much power in the grid and they can’t sell it all.
They’ll either encourage people to invest in batteries or encourage people not to install solar power at all. We’ll see. But there’s nothing more exciting than pissing off your suppliers and customers, all in one fell effort.
It should be noted that a photovoltaic cell is a P/N Diode. Light shining on the junction creates a forward bias by separating charges across the junction. If an external circuit provides a lower impedance path for the charge to flow compared to that back to the side from which it came, then current will flow through the circuit.
If not (e.g., if the cell is not connected to an external circuit at all,) then the charges simply will flow back across the junction and you get charge recombination with the energy released as heat.
That is, the cell gets warmer in the sunlight if it is disconnected from an external circuit than it would get if something was drawing power from it.
That is, a disconnected solar cell in the sun is just like any other object. It heats up. No magic, you can’t beat thermodynamics.
All an owner has to do is get a junction box between the panels and the inverter that is on a timer, and that disconnects the circuit during daylight hours when they’re not using the power locally. That way, no export charge.
$10 at Jaycar. Or you could invest in really big hot water heater, and boil the thing during the day
Fuck yous!
Actually my advice to anyone is to completely isolate your solar system from the grid. But keep your inwards connection in case you need that extra power. Or get a generator.
Then start running extension cords around your neighbourhood to distribute your solar power in a co-op fashion. Make your own local grid.
Ausgrid really are stupid fucking cunts. You don’t penalise people for investing in solar just to solve a short term problem. The ideal and obvious solution is to invest in infrastructure that consumes all that excess energy in the daytime.
Hydro pumping for example.
Or a big arse aluminium smelter.
Server farms.
Or polysilicon production, in a nice ironic twist.
Anything, fuckwits.
offshore westerly 