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Tesla To Construct 'Virtual Solar Power Plant' Using 50,000 Homes (cleantechnica.com)
Long-time Slashdot readers denbesten, haruchai, and Kant all submitted this story. CleanTechnica reports:
Tesla and the government of South Australia have announced a stunning new project that could change how electricity is generated not only in Australia but in every country in the world. They plan to install rooftop solar system on 50,000 homes in the next four years and link them them together with grid storage facilities to create the largest virtual solar power plant in history. And here's the kicker: The rooftop solar systems will be free. The cost of the project will be recouped over time by selling the electricity generated to those who consume it.
"We will use people's homes as a way to generate energy for the South Australian grid, with participating households benefiting with significant savings in their energy bills," says South Australia's premier Jay Weatherill. "More renewable energy means cheaper power for all South Australians..." Price predicts utility bills for participating households will be slashed by 30%.
Electrek reports that the project will result in at least 650 MWh of additional energy storage capacity, and Tesla points out that "At key moments, the virtual power plant could provide as much capacity as a large gas turbine or coal power plant."
"We will use people's homes as a way to generate energy for the South Australian grid, with participating households benefiting with significant savings in their energy bills," says South Australia's premier Jay Weatherill. "More renewable energy means cheaper power for all South Australians..." Price predicts utility bills for participating households will be slashed by 30%.
Electrek reports that the project will result in at least 650 MWh of additional energy storage capacity, and Tesla points out that "At key moments, the virtual power plant could provide as much capacity as a large gas turbine or coal power plant."
This is great news for rental tenants and others who can't make the numbers work on a solar system. South Australians can register their interest at http://ourenergyplan.sa.gov.au/virtual-power-plant
we .au techs have informed them that it is in fact a Distributed Power Plant, not a Virtual one (but if they want unlimited virtual power i have these solar panels in minecraft they could use).
PSA + bad jokes expended. My work here is done.
Because they'll sell you electricity below market rates and not charge for installation or maintenance of the system.
Yeah, that seems pretty obvious when you RTFA
Why would I provide my roof (and have holes drilled into it and everything else) so someone else can install solar panels on it and then sell me the electricity that is generated?
Where's the advantage for the homeowner over just telling this lot to go way and continuing to purchase power as today without all of that gear on the roof?
From the summary, it sounds like the homeowner gets a 30% discount on their monthly bill. The average electric bill in Australia is about $100usd so they are basically renting their roof for $30usd / month. A 30% discount sounds nice and he will likely get some people to say yes but it seems like a very small amount of money to deal with the hassle of having a 3rd party installing and then periodically maintaining something on your roof. There could be other benefits too though like not having to worry about brownouts, downed lines, etc...
I'd be cautious about their claims of a 30% savings. I had SolarCity give me a very similar pitch. At the time, electricity prices were USD$0.08/KWh. Their offer was that I would be required to purchase from SolarCity 100% of the electricity my roof generated, at $0.13/KWh, for the life of the system. Pay close attention to what I just said - generated electricity, not consumed electricity. If I only consumed half of the electricity generated by my roof, I would sell the remainder to my local utility at the going rate, which is still $0.08/KWh. In fact, it's been $0.08 +/- $0.01 for the past 15 years. The more the sun shined, the bigger the hole I would have been digging for myself. Fortunately for me, I understand basic math, so I declined their offer. I instead purchased my panels from a local installer, and I'm on track to have my system pay for itself within my original 7 year estimate.
But if Tesla can build the solar panelling for ~.50USD/W, it might be doable in 7.5-15 years (I calculated recoup costs at 30 years as requiring ~0.30c/KWh power pricing to make it back, based off an 8 hour/day generation period.
According to this page : https://electrek.co/2017/10/30/elon-musk-tesla-work-harder-australia-power-problem/
South Australia is already paying ~$0.47 per kWh ( not sure if that is AUD or USD )
According to this PDF : https://www.originenergy.com.au/content/dam/origin/residential/docs/energy-price-fact-sheets/sa/1July2017/SA_Electricity_Residential_SA%20Power%20Networks_Standard%20Published%20Rate.PDF
Current network prices are ~$0.40 AUD INC GST ( GST = Sales tax )
Taking the cheaper of the two xe.com says that : http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=.40&From=AUD&To=USD
works out to be ~$0.3166 USD per kWh
Yes, the government does own these roofs. These are council homes (low income housing).
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
Coal goes offline - that's why we have natural gas peakers and backup turbines, so we can generate that 100 MW for more than 5-10 minutes at a shot...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
And batteries for the millisecond-scale response times to bridge the gap until those backups spin up.
I don't trust atoms -- they make up stuff.
He's worth $20 billion dollars.
Are you really that fucking retarded?
Because the Chinese panels are not cheaper than Tesla's. They are about the same due to higher efficiency of Tesla. However, Tesla will likely use some Chinese panel.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
In Europe we've been able to contract our roofs to PV companies for years. They take any profit, the homeowner gets free electricity. With the drop in feed in tariff rates new installations are dead in the UK now but it's still viable elsewhere. The schemes are so old they predate affordable domestic storage systems or grid storage but Tesla aren't really doing anything new.