In coming years, as solar farms expand to meet demand during winter, there will be periods during the summer where there is a massive oversupply of electricity at midday for days or even weeks at a time. Solar farms will disconnect because there's nowhere for their electricity to go. So, increasing output for a new demand during that time is as easy as reconnecting, and unlike fossil fuel power plants there are no marginal costs.
What if the zero marginal cost were passed on? What would happen if energy was free for even a couple of weeks a year? Bitcoin mining is thinking too small. This will affect entire economies. Seawater desalination is expensive largely because of energy costs; what if those costs went to zero? What other obscure ultra-energy-intensive industrial processes will suddenly become viable because of mass solar? Those processes aren't done with solar now because of the opportunity cost: it would be more profitable to skip on the equipment and just sell power on the grid. What if that opportunity cost were gone?
Energy storage will become a lot more viable when the input is free. Not even necessarily grid-scale storage: I bet house-scale energy storage will become a significant market if the price difference between day and night gets large enough.
Mass solar means (or, it should mean) that energy will occasionally become free, and this is one of the things I'm most excited for the future over.
Arnt · 7h ago
A few months ago I read that there are applications to connect more battery capacity to the German grid than the country's peak usage.
If all of that is approved, Germany could run 100% on battery powered (at least for a few minutes). I can see why... If battery operators can buy power at below-zero prices now and then, profit should not be a problem.
toomuchtodo · 5h ago
Indeed, battery storage needs to catch up to Europe's low carbon energy deployment rate (nuclear + hydro + wind + solar).
What if the zero marginal cost were passed on? What would happen if energy was free for even a couple of weeks a year? Bitcoin mining is thinking too small. This will affect entire economies. Seawater desalination is expensive largely because of energy costs; what if those costs went to zero? What other obscure ultra-energy-intensive industrial processes will suddenly become viable because of mass solar? Those processes aren't done with solar now because of the opportunity cost: it would be more profitable to skip on the equipment and just sell power on the grid. What if that opportunity cost were gone?
Energy storage will become a lot more viable when the input is free. Not even necessarily grid-scale storage: I bet house-scale energy storage will become a significant market if the price difference between day and night gets large enough.
Mass solar means (or, it should mean) that energy will occasionally become free, and this is one of the things I'm most excited for the future over.
If all of that is approved, Germany could run 100% on battery powered (at least for a few minutes). I can see why... If battery operators can buy power at below-zero prices now and then, profit should not be a problem.