That’s what I’m talking about! This needs to be everywhere. Funny though, my local utilities already has it marked on their agenda to “discuss” these types of solar setups. They say they “may not be safe to use.”
Actually the reality is that utility companies stand to lose money from tech like this. So hopefully my community and others can stand up for this tech.
As well as the risks of shoddy kit, there is also a grid stability issue.
Basically, solar can go off an on at a fairly rapid rate, compared to what the grid is designed for. This can lead to instabilities. Either brownouts or spikes in voltage. This can panic some grid equipment and force a shutdown.
What they should do is invest in their infrastructure and make it better able to cope with a distributed supply, distributed load setup. We all know how they feel about investments however!
Well they are correct to a point.
If the solar panel don’t have grid failure shutdown for its inverter, it can shock (or with bad luck) kill workers working on a downed power line assuming the load side is safe. That is also why house installations also often only have a dedicated outlet during power loss and are not allowed to connect to the full house.
I agree everyone should be able to get off-grid solar system or balcony solar, but they should have to be certified to not shock workers during an outage when people inevitably get cheap TEMU balcony solar.
Another potential issue is the possibility of overloading a circuit if these are used incorrectly. Basically, having enough load on the same circuit as too many of these panels would cause over current that is not seen by the upstream breaker. That’s probably an unlikely circumstance but something to be aware of and to design controls to prevent.
Good points. I’ll also admit I have a fear of electricity so I’d totally be scared. But my local utilities are not saying this because they are worried about our well being, they are worried about making less money.
If you’re in the US: https://www.pluginsolarmap.com/
Oh shit! My state just passed plug in solar!
Where the heck do I get some lol
