Solar generation is traded in the same market as gas, wind, nuclear etc. so if it's that cheap to produce you're effectively making 100% profit.
The question is will that change especially the fact the, often, small amount of gas in use controls the price for everything else.
Which is where effective storage comes into play and seems to be something missing in the UK right now. We are ramping up the generation capability but then are buggered either when conditions aint right (either too little or too much in the case of wind).
Whilst there are some storage being put in it tends to be headline news when it does happen.
Which is where effective storage comes into play and seems to be something missing in the UK right now.
There is no 'effective storage'. Even the largest batteries are for very short term grid balancing only. Effective storage is pumped hydroelectric scale projects that even if there was the political will to commission there isn't enough suitable geography in the UK.
As a general rule, other than maybe not looking great, they're pretty positive things all round.
The thing is, they’re mostly in fields behind high hedges, so can’t be seen except through field entrances, and from a distance and from higher ground, are barely visible, just a muted dark grey, like a large lake. I can say this with some confidence, as there’s one built on a former waste tip that’s visible from one of my favourite viewpoints, and until I looked at the site through binoculars, I actually thought it was a large artificial lake.
It’s actually visible in this photo, in the middle distance, although I’d be surprised if many people can pick it out; people I’ve asked when I’ve been there couldn’t.
For anyone interested in the actual numbers behind all this - how much land we need, why not on buildings, is there enough room for pumped hydro storage etc, Our World In Data is a great site:
https://ourworldindata.org/
Hannah Richie that works there has written a fantastic book detailing a lot of this as well:
Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet https://g.co/kgs/Tgko2qY
Also on Spotify premium as a free title now, really worth a listen
@konagirl That deer fence keeps out predators too, allowing plantlife and birdlife to really flourish. As an example the fenced areas around Bradwell on Sea nuclear plant are teaming with raptors and other birdlife as nothing and no one gets in to disturb nests on the ground (on pain of armed police shooting them).
I can see the benefits of large arrays but give that every building in the country has a roof, I can also see that using roofs and local storage in EVs and local batteries might be more useful as the energy will be where it will be used?
You really need a combination. Local generation works well for certain use cases, bulk, central generation for others.
I get a mix of solar and hydro here. I pass a couple of dozen medium sized arrays on the way to work, and we have several large arrays on the roofs of our offices and factories. There's also a biggish array that i can see from my old office window.
That's got exactly one extra building. Has a fence round it, but that's mostly to keep the sheep in.
Probably 1/3rd of my colleagues/neighbours have solar. I'm still looking into it. Unfortunately it's looking like it's too expensive, as i don't actually use that much, and would probably need a new roof at the same time.
It’s actually visible in this photo, in the middle distance, although I’d be surprised if many people can pick it out; people I’ve asked when I’ve been there couldn’t.
There's a massive one on the Wiltshire downs, took me a long while to figure out it wasn't just a crop of strawberries (or other crop that requires acres of plastic sheeting) from a distance.
It's like windfarms, you think it's going to spoil a landscape somehow, but in reality it's just 'there' and you don't really notice it much at all.
It's like windfarms, you think it's going to spoil a landscape somehow, but in reality it's just 'there' and you don't really notice it much at all
Not sure I agree with that. There's a small one, four windmills, near us and it is a hideous scar on the landscape, a solar farm would probably be less obtrusive than it
there are 4 turbines visible out my french doors at various distances and a line of medium pylons ..... from close to barely visible.
like solar panels at the same distance they are fairly unobtrusive - as per all the examples above.
If they were in the field next door i can understand why people wouldn't want to live next to any of them the closer they are the more obtrusive they are
