Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Technology => Topic started by: thedoc on 10/03/2010 13:54:10
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Can we sell the solar power we generate back to the Grid? In countries like Germany and Australia do you get paid decent rates for the power you generate?
Asked by Second Life Listeners
Read the naked scientists answer here (http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/content/questions/question/2574/)
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We posed this question to Niraj Lal from the University of Cambridge...
I think the economics of it comes down to which country you're in. I think in Germany a while ago they had a feed-in tarrif, so that means for every bit of energy that you make, that you're not using, you can sell back to the grid at a really high price, a lot higher than what you buy it back at. So in Germany and in certain places in Australia, it becomes cost-effective to have solar cells in your roof.
I think if you just buy a solar cell off the shelf and put it on your roof in Australia, the payback time is maybe about 10 to 15 years. But with government subsidies and government programs and you can reduce that to about 8 to 4 years when it starts to become not a bad investment for a household.
A lot of cells are also made from silicon and that’s a pretty energy intensive thing to make. I think for a standard silicon solar cell panel, it’s about 4 years that it takes of making energy in a really nice sunny place to just pay back all the energy that it took to make the solar panel in the first place. But after 4 years, it starts giving you back in carbon terms and the life of the silicon solar panel is about 25 years plus more. And so, I think it does start to make sense in certain areas in the world with government help to start off this role.
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State or federal law(s) exist in America that provide for consumers to sell power back to their power companies. The companies need to install special meters that run backwards for these customers.
Yes, I think the newer ones will only run forwards, but the old ones actually ran backwards. Not only that, but the sockets they plug into do not prevent the meter from being plugged in upside down, which was a method attempted by some people to reduce their electricity bills.
I worked for a company that made RF readers for meters, and our transmitter had reverse detection for the older meters.
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On the 1st of April,(I think) People in the UK will be able to feed back into the grid. A premium will be paid for every kW generated and an additional payment made for every kW exported. Nearly every household has the capacity to export although most will need an export meter
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Do you know how much they are going to pay in the UK? - in Germany the return is very handsome; in many places it is equivalent priced to the purchase cost when you net use some power.