[LINK] Why power generators are terrified of solar

[Kim Holburn]

Actually the graph from this article I found interesting was this one:
http://media.crikey.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/27-03-2012-12-52-24-PM.jpg

I remember Tom Koltai talking about transmission losses and thinking about it in an engineering sense I thought what he said was wrong but I realised looking at the above graph that as an economist what he said was right.  In Australia the costs of building and maintaining a power transmission grid in our very large and sparsely populated country are larger than almost any other country.  

Another economist I talked to says that bounties on domestic solar arrays on houses are a waste of money and not a good way of spending power dollars.  She says that building large centralised solar power generators has greater cost benefit.  I can't see this as you have to build transmission lines to connect to the grid and those transmission lines can add a huge cost.  Maybe it might work in more densely populated countries but not in Australia.  With domestic arrays on people's roofs you don't have to build transmission lines because they're already there, you're generating power where next to where you use it.

IANAE though.

On 2012/Mar/28, at 7:42 PM, Kim Holburn wrote:

> http://www.crikey.com.au/2012/03/27/why-generators-are-terrified-of-solar/
> 
>> Here is a pair of graphs that demonstrate most vividly the merit order effect and the impact that solar is having on electricity prices in Germany; and why utilities there and elsewhere are desperate to try to rein in the growth of solar PV in Europe. It may also explain why Australian generators are fighting so hard against the extension of feed-in tariffs in this country.
>> 
>> The first graph illustrates what a typical day on the electricity market in Germany looked like in March four years ago; the second  illustrates what is happening now, with 25GW of solar PV installed across the country. Essentially, it means that solar PV is not just licking the cream off the profits of the fossil fuel generators — as happens in Australia with a more modest rollout of PV — it is in fact eating their entire cake.
> 
> ....
> 

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Kim Holburn
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