The Australian government is floating a scheme that would share the benefits of solar power with everyone on the grid, offering totally free electricity to ratepayers in the middle of the day, when the sun is shining the strongest.
Australia is a sunny place. It’s kind of known for it. It’s the sunniest continent, and the sunniest country outside of the Middle East/Africa, with extensive photovoltaic power potential across its entire territory.
In recognition of that, Australia has been installing lots of solar power. Formerly a coal-heavy nation (for which coal is still its 2nd-largest export), solar and wind have rapidly taken over Australia’s electricity grid, pushing coal and methane gas out of the equation.
This has taken a big chunk out of Australia’s electricity-related climate emissions, and of course resulted in clean air benefits as dirty coal is pushed out of the grid. And climate emissions matter a lot for Australia, a country that is becoming more unbearably hot and suffering more fires due to climate change. (Though Australia is also a great example of how global cooperation on environmental issues can fix a huge problem, as they are the primary beneficiary of global action on closing the hole in the Ozone layer)
How do they plan to pay for infrastructure maintenance? I get that a solar farm is way cheaper to maintain than a coal burner, but no matter what, you gotta move the power to its destination. Will fees from nighttime use be sufficient? What about when everyone gets batteries and nighttime fees collapse?
This is because everyone doesn't have batteries. The spot price is already free or negative at those times. It is to encourage people to time their appliances like washing machines to operate at that time, so there is less power need at other times. People still need to pay a connection fee (grid fee) and would pay for usage at other times.
I wonder if batteries will be allowed of you're in the scheme. It would make car charging particularly attractive too.
The scheme is for everyone in NSW and Queensland starting in about six months. Then six months later other states will introduce it.
Yes, cars are the best use scenario especially if you have a fast charger. Australia has 240V mains which I think makes fast chargers more affordable(?)
Are power and distribution rates not two separate things? Where I live you pay a daily network rate which goes directly to lines/distribution costs, and a separate rate for electricity actually consumed.
No, not here in Florida. One fat bill.
In Belgium there's a part of your bill proportional to the max power draw you did.
For example, it at a certain point in the year you drew 30kW, then your final "connection cost" will be proportional to that 30kW.
Even if you only use electricity at noon on sunny days, when the power component is often free or negative in price.