snowcrustracer wrote:
I'm pretty sure the Power companies hate having to pay customers for excess solar. I know around where I live Eversource is fighting tooth and nail to change the laws so they will not have to.
One of the issues is that some of these systems have been causing is the voltage monitors that only allow power to go back onto the grid if it is 5 volts over the system voltage. So if you put a volt meter line to line at your meter you normally see 120/240 volts. Your solar converter would have to raise the voltage to 122/245 volts to push back into the grid. As more and more people get panels the voltages go higher and higher to push back onto the grid. So power companies are seeing unpredictable grid voltages in some neighborhoods causing the solar customers to loose $$$. It is not uncommon to see 250 volts line to neutral on some sunny days. The power companies complain it is causing damage to the grid...and costing to much to place voltage regulators in every neighborhood to control the higher voltages caused by the solar customers. This will be the justification these companies use to end the payback program.
My 2 cents.
Excellent information!
You made part of the points in my post above as they relate to problems on the horizon for rooftop solar merely backfeeding an existing wired grid.
IMHO, the ultimate end user approach is to continue using the wired grid where it already exists and makes sense to extend for new construction ... but eventually feed it completely from less expensive and far less, or zero, polluting renewabe energy sources.
