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Utilities Face Billions In Losses From Distributed Renewables
Lucas123 writes: Over the next 10 years, adoption of distributed power in the form of renewables such as solar power has the potential to reduce revenues to grid utilities by as much as $48 billion in the U.S. and by $75 billion in Europe, according to a new study. The study, by Accenture, revealed that utility executives are more nervous (PDF) about the impact of distributed — or locally generated renewable power — than ever before. 61% of those surveyed this year indicated they expect significant or moderate revenue reductions compared to only 43% last year. The cost of rooftop solar-powered electricity will be on par with prices for common coal or oil-powered generation in two years, and the technology to produce it will only get cheaper, according to a recent report from Deutsche Bank. New technologies, such as more efficient solar cells, are also threatening to increase efficiencies and drive adoption.
...by Accenture
Stopped there.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
Keep in mind that while they might reduce their costs in terms of fuel, the infrastructure they are responsible for maintaining will keep growing. When this topic comes up people often forget about that rather massive recurring cost and most consumers just sorta take it for granted that someone will fix/upgrade things.
They have good reason to be nervous... They'll still be on the hook to provide full power when solar is producing less than peak capability or isn't producing at all, but there's little chance they'll be allowed to significantly raise their rates. This works out to being required to maintain full generating and transmission capacity with sharply reduced revenue.
Not to mention that very few people installing subsidized and/or cheap solar panels will spend the money to install unsubsidized and expensive battery capacity. That's long been a deep flaw in the thinking of solar power supporters - that they can have their cake and eat it too, the unspoken assumption that the utilities will always be there and will always have the capacity to make up any lack. You get what you pay for folks, TANSTAAFL.
http://disinfo.com/2014/12/elo...
Yet Musk’s so-called gigafactory may soon become an existential threat to the 100-year-old utility business model. The facility will also churn out stationary battery packs that can be paired with rooftop solar panels to store power. Already, a second company led by Musk, SolarCity Corp. (SCTY), is packaging solar panels and batteries to power California homes and companies including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) - See more at: http://disinfo.com/2014/12/elo...
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
Well, they're kind of in a losing position - raise rates to pay for losses, and people just move to renewables sooner.
It seems pretty clear that generating electricity from free sunlight is going to be cheaper than mining and transporting fossil fuels to a complex facility to burn them.
Even IF green energy becomes cheaper, this doesn't mean distributed power is going away anytime soon,
it just means that large power companies will have to move to green energy sooner.
Economy of scale still applies to solar energy. It's still going to be cheaper for a utility company to set up hundreds
of solar panels and sell the electricity to consumers than it will be for everyone to buy/maintain their own system.
There is a potential saving by being able to eliminate distribution costs so it's possible that local generation could
bet out economy of scale if distribution costs are a significant part. So the question really becomes
what percentage of your electricity price is generation and what percentage is distribution?
The other way that local generation wins is if people start installing solar for reasons other that cost of generation.
It should not matter anyways. Utilities such as these should be there to serve the people. They should only worry about covering costs, not making a profit.
You took the words right out of my mouth. Where are my mod points when I need them.
Twenty four hours may not be enough. During a big storm solar will be degraded for much longer than that. Also at higher latitudes winter solar output can be as little as 1-% of summer output. One can either massively over produce in summer or rely on grid power in the winter. If one is relying on winter grid power then the equipment generating that power will only be used a fraction of the year.
but storage costs are on the same downward trajectory as the renewable generation costs.
The problem with local storage is that it is mainly batteries. Batteries are not environmentally friendly.
Why the hell is that unfortunate? Utilities should be nationalized. Their existence and proper functioning is essential to society and shouldn't be subject to the whims of shareholders and career tigers or 'operating at a profit'. Even though I believe nationalized industries do not necessarily have to be less 'efficient' than private ones (the efforts to make them efficient have been meager and successes underreported), I'd rather have inefficient organizations operating at a net loss than ones that will fuck me over left and right to extract every penny they can and don't give a flying fuck about the service they should be there to provide.
This 'socialism bad, free market good'-crap really needs to stop.