On Apr 4, 5:35*am, harry wrote:
On Apr 4, 3:17*am, Mark wrote:

**We are talking about installations that can't

generate more than 10 kw - and more likely would only generate 5 or 6 kw
on a mid-summer day, with the bulk of that energy being consumed by the
home owner's own AC unit (I'm sure) with little or none to spare to be
injected back into the neighborhood grid.

Comments?

agreed, this is actually a bureaucratic *economics or business problem
and they are trying to call it a technical problem.

It isn't a technical problem.

Mark

The above comment is exactly right.
There is no technical problem. The PV array can be sized to overcome
any supply side issues. *What comes in can equally well go out.

It can equally well come and go provided the distribution system that
is there can handle it. It seems to me that if you have a distribution
system that is already at 100% of it's capacity, then strange as it
may
sound, adding more generating capacity and putting it onto that part
of the system could exceed it's capacity. Now it would seem unlikely
that taken together all the solar panels in that particular problem
distribution system could be generating a net addition to the system
during peak demand. In other words, if it's 100F at 3PM, what would
happen? Would everyone with solar have their AC on and be either
taking power from the grid or at least not giving it back? Or
because
of being paid 80C a kwh to generate electricity, will people be
putting
in large systems and leaving their AC off? If the latter, then it
would
seem to me that taken together enough solar panel systems could
put more power into the distribution system than it could handle.
Certainly given the small penetration of solar, you would not think
a few more would really matter, but at some point, they do start
to add up.

It's also possible that just like with national electric codes there
are
some codes or rules that apply to electric utilities that say in
essence you can't ever allow more than X generating capacity
to be connected to a grid with certain characteristics, regardless
of where it comes from. Could have been put in place before
anyone thought of small solar generators....

Now is that the real reason behind what's going on? Don't know,
but it's certainly theoretically possible.






But see diversity factor.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diversity_factor
This has the biggest bearing on the matter.
Sounds tome that there are politcal/financial matters yet unresovled.

I am having a 4Kwp array fitted to my roof in two weeks time. *(UK)
It's just *a money thing. I shall have a 12% return on capital.