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Re:Solar Just Hit a Record Low Price in the U.S by derefr on Wednesday July 11, 2018 @04:19PM (#17509983)
Most energy consumption in the world is industrial, right? We wouldn't need to have nearly as many power plants (of any kind) if all those power plants needed to do was to sustain residential usage.

If you think of it as two power grids, then "the big power grid"—the industrial grid—can be fully powered by solar, and the residential grid, i.e. "the small power grid", is kind of trivial to solve in comparison.

Re:Solar Just Hit a Record Low Price in the U.S by crdoconnor on Wednesday July 11, 2018 @04:44PM (#17510132)
Industrial power is often more amenable to demand shifting though. I want my kettle to start boiling now, but aluminum smelters don't really mind if the throughput is highest at 3pm instead of 3am or vice versa, especially if that gets them a cheaper price.

Even for domestic users, electric storage heaters, water heaters and electric car charging are all amenable to demand shifting. Over time, those will probably become the largest users of electricity if prices keep plunging.

I think there's a lot of money to be made out demand shifting tech, especially if people keep erroneously believing that variability is a problem best solved with expensive lithium ion batteries.

Re:Solar Just Hit a Record Low Price in the U.S by prawn on Wednesday July 11, 2018 @05:46PM (#17510530)
Not sure if it falls under "industrial" but commercial use (shopping centres, offices, etc) fits with solar brilliantly, and at least where I live, offices are rushing to get panels on their buildings. We had it quoted for our co-working space, and the pay-off time was 3-5 years, which is amazing.
Re:Solar Just Hit a Record Low Price in the U.S by secabeen on Wednesday July 11, 2018 @04:46PM (#17510147)
Air Conditioners alone use about 6% of all electricity, so non-industrial is a big chunk: https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/home-cooling-systems/air-...