A German aristocrat of my acquaintance has figured out that the price he will be paid for the output of a solar panel is so high compared with the price he will pay for his input of normal electricity, that he is thinking of rigging up powerful arc lamps to shine on solar panels on his extensive roof.
(HT: Bishop Hill)
what is the expected price of electricity in the future?
Butterfield, Bloomfield & Bishop
9 Mar 10 at 9:54 am
It might matter more too when the price gets upped.
Semi Regular Libertarian
9 Mar 10 at 10:03 am
Sounds like crap. Solar panel efficiency is max 15%, lamp efficiency is going to be around 50% or less. Are they really paying 15 times as much for solar power as they are charging for electricity?
As far as I can tell with a few minutes on google the feed in tarriff in Germany is around 43 euro cents / kwh, and the electricty cost around 20 euro cents/ kwh. A good subsidy but a long long way from being arbitrage in the way described.
Steve Edney
9 Mar 10 at 10:31 am
I’m sure it would be simpler to just charge a battery or other storage from the mains then feed it back in with your solar. Or run a line from your neighbours mains into your solar feed and split the profits.
Tim Quilty
9 Mar 10 at 12:44 pm
I believe the expression is Epic Win (or Epic Policy Fail).
JackP
9 Mar 10 at 1:26 pm
Yes, but I imagine this would be considered fraud.
Steve Edney
9 Mar 10 at 1:45 pm
So I guess could the original suggestion.
Steve Edney
9 Mar 10 at 1:46 pm
Electricity has already gone up, 50% of power costs are infrastructure and guess where a lot of the big increases are….air conditioning
Did the world stop because energy prices went up?
rog
9 Mar 10 at 4:44 pm