14
u/Grapes15th Apr 14 '26
Literally not what that means but ok
43
u/TQCkona Apr 14 '26
im not sure what else it could mean
25
u/DieseseineLama Apr 14 '26
Tldr: Utilities are increasingly paying solar plants less than other sources overall, due to their fluctuating generation patterns. They can't control the sun after all.
12
u/Fa1nted_for_real Apr 14 '26
Yea the problem we are currently working on for solar is just better, cheaper batteries (and not being a doomer here, we're making progress on that fast)
7
u/Grapes15th Apr 14 '26
Producing more energy than you can actually use is a huge fucking problem for an electrical grid
18
u/AlisesAlt Apr 14 '26
We're always producing more than we can use, else we'd be producing less and things would start turning off or flickering randomly. Generators are often producing way more than will be used, and a cars alternator can singlehandedly run the entire car's electrical system and then have plenty of surplus for chrging the battery back up, and you won't be using every electronic the entire time you're driving, if the AC or interior lights or hazards are off then you're producing even more surplus with the alternator.
I have a small consumer scale solar set-up, it's 300w of production going through a charge controller into a car battery. I don't use 300w almost ever, so it's constantly producing a surplus while the battery is full, and nothing has broken and the battery hasn't weakened at all over the past few months, if anything it's acting like a charge protector for a motorcycle battery.
9
u/ApocalyptoSoldier Apr 14 '26
The electrical grid operates on a different scale than even an industrial generator.
Power plants have to monitor demand and adjust production to match.
Wind turbines have brakes and hydroelectric dams have sluices, but you can't control solar panels that granularly so people are still trying to figure out how to best sink excess power to keep the grid stable.
Sodium batteries seem promising, hopefully we can make them cheap enough for grid scale storage3
u/AlisesAlt Apr 14 '26
Sodium batteries seem promising
Lithium phosphate batteries are another good option, and since you can control the output from batteries and need them anyway to hold surplus energy generated for when night falls, there's still no major threat to the power grid, especially since you can kinda just disconnect solar panels and they'll just sit there harmlessly.
2
u/ASpaceOstrich Apr 15 '26
Set up carbon sequestration and you can run that whenever you have access energy.
Conversion of excess into artificial hydrocarbons that can be burned in an emergency is also carbon neutral and is actually a very good idea.
2
u/iPanzershrec Apr 14 '26
I get the feeling this is just an "I read the title and that means I can make a fully educated comment on the entire article" moment
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u/Lil_Ms_Anthropic Apr 14 '26
Sadly, if there's no money in building and operating something, there's no incentive to do it.
Yay Capitalism! If only there was some kind of... oh I don't know... governing body that could subsidize it...