Is Plug-In Solar Worth It?

A piece in the UK Telegraph today (behind a paywall) says that the grid operator in the UK is considering how to protect the grid from a surplus of solar generation. Needless to say no-one in power in the UK is in the least deterred by the increasingly obvious fact that this is just not going to work. They are discovering intermittency at last, but their reaction is just to pretend that it doesn’t exist, isn’t important.

Why anyone thinks that its sensible to increase solar on this scale, in the second worst country in the world for solar power generation? Its completely insane. You are guaranteed that power generation will be highest when demand is lowest, and lowest when demand is highest.

And no-one can explain how this is supposed to work after they get all the cars transferred to EVs and home heating moved to heat pumps. And one January or February evening, demand hits 60GW+, solar is zero, wind is under 5GW. Where is the rest coming from? And answer came there none – they don’t know and they don’t care, they are just closing their eyes and pedal to the metal.

Here are some exerpts. Notice how they are sending someone to Washington to tell them how splendidly all this is going and they should follow the UK in its voyage to the land of blackouts! Totally insane.

Energy chiefs are drawing up plans to stop the electricity grid being overwhelmed by solar power this summer.

The National Energy System Operator (Neso) said it would be forced to use “more tools, more often” to keep power networks stable when sunny weather caused surges in energy generation.

This would include paying households and factories to consume excess power for the first time, as well as potentially issuing unprecedented orders to switch off large power stations.

Neso issued the warning as Rachel Reeves travelled to Washington, where she is expected to urge a gathering of world leaders to “follow her plan” to combat the energy crisis caused by the conflict in the Middle East.

At the International Monetary Fund summit, the Chancellor will call for “collective action” while urging countries to embrace net zero to boost energy security.

It means they must balance the system in other ways, such as paying larger power plants to turn off or paying consumers to ramp up demand.

The amount of solar on the grid has more than doubled to 22 gigawatts in the past decade, as households and businesses have sought to cut their power bills by installing rooftop panels.
Grid demand expected to plunge
But this is also leading to less demand for energy on the National Grid.

In its report, Neso said there was a 75pc chance that national demand would plunge to a record low during the late May bank holiday weekend, as households were less likely to be at home.
The previous record low of 12.8 gigawatts was set last May – but grid chiefs expect it could drop to 11 gigawatts this year.

By comparison, passive generation from wind and solar farms could be around 18 to 19 gigawatts at the same time.

The imbalance highlights the challenges posed by a renewables-based electricity grid, where supply becomes heavily dependent on the weather.

One expert also warned it had echoes of the blackouts across the Iberian Peninsula last year, when a chain reaction involving solar farms knocked out power across Spain.

Under Labour’s clean power plans, Mr Miliband is seeking to triple solar capacity across Britain by 2030.