Rooftop solar helps send South Australia grid to zero demand in world first

[rrh]

South Australia on Sunday became the first gigawatt scale grid in the world to reach zero demand when the combined output of rooftop solar and other small non-scheduled generators exceeded all the local customer load requirements.

The landmark event was observed by several energy analysts, including at Watt Clarity and NEMLog, where Geoff Eldridge noted that a number of measures for South Australia demand notched up record minimums for system normal conditions.

 

[Lupus]

Why were there small generators being used, okay at it was to keep the grid stable as it dropped to negative for a bit.
Pity SA is so backwards on feedback to the grid

 

[AlphaJohn]

Why were there small generators being used, okay at it was to keep the grid stable as it dropped to negative for a bit.
Pity SA is so backwards on feedback to the grid

Why would you promote something that actively eat into your profit.

If you invest in coal mines you want people to use more coal.... not less.

Meanwhile in Australia:

 

[Gaz{M}]

We could have had this 5 years ago if it weren't for the Coal mafia.

 

[Cius]

Fascinating. I wonder how they are handling the financial implications as obviously evening peak demand is probably still huge depending on how many of those solar users also have storage.

 

[P924]

In an event like this, depending on your contract, you might actually have to pay to export power to the grid.

 

[Cactus]

We could have had this 5 years ago if it weren't for the Coal mafia.

We do, don't you know how much diesel Eskom wastes on generators to keep us from loadshedding sometimes? Solar is great until you have 2 weeks overcast and burn away all that diesel... Nuclear ftw.

 

[greg0205]

Astonishing.

No, not that demand on their grid dropped to minus 38MW, rather that a good-news renewable energy story would draw, "well, you know, fossil fuel energy is still better because..." posters who will always find some angle to attack renewables, even if that attack has no basis in reality and has to be invented on the fly.

 

[w1z4rd]

We do, don't you know how much diesel Eskom wastes on generators to keep us from loadshedding sometimes? Solar is great until you have 2 weeks overcast and burn away all that diesel... Nuclear ftw.

Solar still works if its two weeks overcast. At least mine does.

 

[Gaz{M}]

Solar still works if its two weeks overcast. At least mine does.

For someone called "cactus", he sure as hell don't know jack **** about the desert known as the Northern Cape.

 

[Cactus]

So I had a bit of a read this afternoon and it turns out I'm way off course. Solar is indeed cheaper than both coal and nuclear for the same output. Apologies for earlier remarks.

 

[Lupus]

Solar still works if its two weeks overcast. At least mine does.

Though it doesn't work in those 12 hours of moonlight yet.

 

[w1z4rd]

Though it doesn't work in those 12 hours of moonlight yet.

That would be nice. Not expecting that anytime soon.

 

[system32]

Though it doesn't work in those 12 hours of moonlight yet.

Hubble-AM2 batteries take care of those 12h - ROI period is ~7years (Less years if Eskoms gets the 20% increase in 2022)

 

[Lupus]

Hubble-AM2 batteries take care of those 12h - ROI period is ~7years

Depends on your usage, for me it would be 10 to 12 years, even with the Eskom increases it would be 80 months.

 

[wingnut771]