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Pakistanâs solar miracle â how the hell did they do it?
Faced with constant electricity blackouts and a failing grid, people in Pakistan took matters into their own hands. The result is a lesson for the rest of the world, and also a warning
Pakistanâs solar miracle â how the hell did they do it?
Faced with constant electricity blackouts and a failing grid, people in Pakistan took matters into their own hands. The result is a lesson for the rest of the world, and also a warning
PV is a no-brainer in a country where you have such solar influx year-round.
In Germany just about everyone has PV to some extent and we have effectively zero solar influx from October through March. Yet it still pays off.
We only have two panels, but we time our laundry and dishwasher to run when the sun is shining. Makes a difference. Our annual power bill has gone down by 10%. Not bad for a 300$ investment.
My neighbours who have installed complete systems all run their EV off their domestic PV systems (at least in summer) and are hoping to amortise their installment costs within 15 years. In Australia you should be able to cut that to 10 years at least (he says, not knowing the price of grid power in Oz, but you get the point).
The main thing is getting a government that is willing to set up the legislation to allow it.
The Southern Outpost gets a lot of sun, has relatively expensive power*, and an unreliable grid with seasonal hurricanes. PV power is basically a no-brainer. I'm connected, so my system was cheap(ish), but I'm pretty close to parity right now. Most systems I've seen or been involved with have an ROI in well under 10 years. Considering battery and equipment lifecycles I tell people it's basically getting your electricity for about 30% of the going rate today. And if you factor in potential rate increases in the next 20 years it's probably closer to 20% or less.
*power there is tiered. the first bits are cheap, but there is a tariff schedule and each tier you 'achieve' the new rate applies backwards to all your power. Running an air conditioner all day can get expensive. Couple it with a pool pump running half the day and it gets much worse. Our place is small, but has AC and a pool, prior to the solar, summer power bills of $300-$400 were not common. Now I leave the AC on with all the doors open because I like the breeze. I don't really need the utility connection, but we keep it as a backup. It costs us ~$2-3 every other month, mostly for the connection and the backend to send us a bill. They have Net metering where we can sell power back, but it's somewhat difficult to get a meter/account for it. You only get credits for future consumption, so I'd really only get ~ $25year out of it. If I could actually sell back into the grid, I'd probably put up more panels. I've considered selling to my neighbors.
A couple of Chinese brands with plug in hybrids are becoming pretty popular here. It looks like you can do the loop around Australia in EVs now. Have to plan a bit carefully, but that is the same for internal combustion. It's a long way between services in some areas. One post I saw was about using the EV to power their induction hotplate.
PV is a no-brainer in a country where you have such solar influx year-round.
In Germany just about everyone has PV to some extent and we have effectively zero solar influx from October through March. Yet it still pays off.
We only have two panels, but we time our laundry and dishwasher to run when the sun is shining. Makes a difference. Our annual power bill has gone down by 10%. Not bad for a 300$ investment.
My neighbours who have installed complete systems all run their EV off their domestic PV systems (at least in summer) and are hoping to amortise their installment costs within 15 years. In Australia you should be able to cut that to 10 years at least (he says, not knowing the price of grid power in Oz, but you get the point).
The main thing is getting a government that is willing to set up the legislation to allow it.
Yeah, you pretty much need a battery storage system, or an EV and a night job, but it's still interesting.
We are shopping EVs for the southern outpost. We have too much energy. I'm going to install a chiller for the pool (heater too / heat pump), I'm actually thinking a plug in hybrid makes sense there, most stuff is short range, and the gas option would cover longer trips with a single car. I just realized Jeep makes a PHEV, it's actually pretty interesting.
A couple of Chinese brands with plug in hybrids are becoming pretty popular here. It looks like you can do the loop around Australia in EVs now. Have to plan a bit carefully, but that is the same for internal combustion. It's a long way between services in some areas. One post I saw was about using the EV to power their induction hotplate.
It makes sense for some people but not for everyone. You have to have either enough electricity use that you can practically shift to that time period or enough storage capacity that you can charge during that period and that you actually use. You also have to watch the energy plans carefully - we don't contract with the producers or distributors directly - there is a layer of retailers that provide little value-added but have confusing differences between plans that they offer and between their plans and other retailers plans. So they can offer you free electricity that may or may not be a good value for you and increase what they charge during other periods. Still, it isn't a bad thing if you can sort through it.
There are some other less than progressive policies and regulations. Apartment dwellers can't slap up solar panels and feed into the grid the way I heard they can in Europe. Currently you can't feed back in from your EV battery so no using it as your storage and backup power.
It does kind of remind me of the early push for nuclear power that was promised to provide electricity too cheap to meter. 3 hours a day of free electricity is better than the delivery on their promise.
My system installation has been delayed due to weather. Plan is to see how it performs then figure out whether to modify plans and whether to get an EV.
Yeah, you pretty much need a battery storage system, or an EV and a night job, but it's still interesting.
We are shopping EVs for the southern outpost. We have too much energy. I'm going to install a chiller for the pool (heater too / heat pump), I'm actually thinking a plug in hybrid makes sense there, most stuff is short range, and the gas option would cover longer trips with a single car. I just realized Jeep makes a PHEV, it's actually pretty interesting.
Australia has so much solar, they are giving it away*
*for three hours in the middle of the day and it's capped (a big cap). But for people with battery systems, or a car to charge mid day, this is a deal.
It makes sense for some people but not for everyone. You have to have either enough electricity use that you can practically shift to that time period or enough storage capacity that you can charge during that period and that you actually use. You also have to watch the energy plans carefully - we don't contract with the producers or distributors directly - there is a layer of retailers that provide little value-added but have confusing differences between plans that they offer and between their plans and other retailers plans. So they can offer you free electricity that may or may not be a good value for you and increase what they charge during other periods. Still, it isn't a bad thing if you can sort through it.
There are some other less than progressive policies and regulations. Apartment dwellers can't slap up solar panels and feed into the grid the way I heard they can in Europe. Currently you can't feed back in from your EV battery so no using it as your storage and backup power.
It does kind of remind me of the early push for nuclear power that was promised to provide electricity too cheap to meter. 3 hours a day of free electricity is better than the delivery on their promise.
My system installation has been delayed due to weather. Plan is to see how it performs then figure out whether to modify plans and whether to get an EV.
Australia has so much solar, they are giving it away*
*for three hours in the middle of the day and it's capped (a big cap). But for people with battery systems, or a car to charge mid day, this is a deal.
The real surprise from the OECDâs subsidy numbers is that it cost China less than $18bn in sectoral support over 15 years to build an industry that can now provide more clean power than the world can readily absorb.
If industrial policy in the west had delivered this kind of bang for its buck, we would be patting ourselves on the back.
If you had told me 6 years ago that I could buy panels for less than $0.5/watt at anything less than a full container load you would have sounded looney. Now that's a starting point for the negotiation. 10 years ago, people thought you were crazy to mount your solar on the ground because someone would come along and steal it. Now you are crazy to put them on the roof because of the extra work, no one steals them because it's easier to go down the street and buy them. The people I work with in Mexico can't get enough, and the demand is coming from other markets too. The only place not working hard on this is the US.
The real surprise from the OECDâs subsidy numbers is that it cost China less than $18bn in sectoral support over 15 years to build an industry that can now provide more clean power than the world can readily absorb.
If industrial policy in the west had delivered this kind of bang for its buck, we would be patting ourselves on the back.
See? trump is bringing all of our allies together... with China... against us.
Also, all of these stories are about generation for distribution. It's not counting all of the people that are standing up their own systems to take load off the grid.
I wonder who will be the first country to put sanctions on US oil? How can WE be allowed to do this to a sovereign country that has done NOTHING to us? Where is the UN?
They're also getting solar tech help from Vietnam and Japan.
See? trump is bringing all of our allies together... with China... against us.
Also, all of these stories are about generation for distribution. It's not counting all of the people that are standing up their own systems to take load off the grid.
"Trading Taiwan" would be catastrophically disastrous for the US. Taiwanese expertise in producing computer chips is vital to the American economy. The rest of the world would see it as a huge American defeat and betrayal of an ally.
I kind of understand China's position because Chiang Kai-shek was worthless in WWII and would have been a horrible dictator if he had ruled China. Good thing MacArthur didn't get to nuke China like he wanted to. So yeah, there is history and a lot of pride, but China's obsession with taking Taiwan back seems to me to be a just let it go and get on with your lives situation. Borders change.
