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by angry_octet
29 days ago
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Unless you have very cheap grid power / terrible sun / needlessly high installation costs, PV will be a winner. So Quebec is bad because electricity is absurdly cheap, and the only benefit is redundancy. California should be absurdly cheap but regulations are out of control. Germany also has insane regulatory burden and expensive labour but grid energy is even more expensive, double the US average. In very sunny places with expensive grid power a battery is sensible, but again politics often favours flat rate tariffs that discount peak power, which again favours grid incumbents. So it might not be economic for your region but that is entirely due to regional politics, a default choice to make PV power expensive. |
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The reality is not that simple. PVs are definitely the cheapest source of energy in a lot of places, which is why it is the fastest growing energy source in the world. But "cheapest in a lot of places" is not the same thing as "universally a winner in every scenario". Politics can be a complicating factor, but in other cases the math just doesn't work out due to plain old physics and economics.
I'm extremely optimistic about the future of solar. But I don't think it helps the argument to pretend that it's already a guaranteed win everywhere if not for foolish politicians. That's just swapping one oversimplification for another.