CleanTechnica presents the case for why we need massively decentralized solar and wind power. I don’t disagree, but think we need both millions of rooftop solar installations as well as gigawatts of solar in deserts.
Both require a new, smarter grid. Our current grid is not designed for power going both ways or for high variability in power production, and it can’t store power. All this needs to change for reliable renewable energy at grid scale to become a reality.
Can’t store power? Review your solar thermal basics and consider what BZE has to say about a Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan.
http://www.beyondzeroemissions.org/resources
New plants can store the energy as heat in insulated molten-salt storage tanks. The heat can be drawn out as necessary, day and night, to boil steam and drive a steam turbine.
The homework has been done here. Solar on my own house feeds back into the grid so that I expect to pay zero — on balance — for the electricity I use. Although I cannot personally store it,of course.
Maybe it is not a neither nor thing — but something complex and both top down and community up.
Wow. Fantastic. Does Australia have feed-in tariffs like Germany, where all the power goes into the grid then you get a discount on what you need?