Re:What if half of Switzerland's rooftops produced electricity?
by kelnos on Friday February 07, 2020 @06:21PM
(#22272256)
If we're talking solely about solar, it's not that simple, since on-the-grid residential solar systems only generate power during the day (and not even always the entire day), and then pull power from the grid at night. For full self-sufficiency, you'd need to install battery systems in every house, and ensure that you have enough panels to pull in enough power during daylight hours to charge the batteries enough to cover all the no-sun hours.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:What if half of Switzerland's rooftops produced electricity?
by xyzzyz on Friday February 07, 2020 @07:41PM
(#22272774)
And for non-Californians, you also need to do something about the problem of not having enough sun power at all during winter, while having greatly increased power needs. Right now, you can work around this problem relatively easily by installing a propane or fuel oil tank, and making up winter shortage of sun with fossils, but as I understand it, the long term plan for society is to get off the fossils altogether.
Re:What if half of Switzerland's rooftops produced electricity?
by Retric on Friday February 07, 2020 @08:59PM
(#22273204)
Solar hot water heaters are currently the solution to that problem. They end up reducing a homes winter energy needs dramatically without the need for fossil fuels at very low costs. Longer term I’d panels keep getting cheaper and more efficient having a significant excess for most of the year is just going to become the norm.
Re:What if half of Switzerland's rooftops produced electricity?
by greglindahl on Saturday February 08, 2020 @01:22AM
(#22274286)
California is a big state with a lot of different terrain, including parts at high altitude that get cold in the winter.