Legislation affecting solar thermal

[Ric2013]

Back to solar PV. I have this also, I bought a bit of electronics from someone called Optimersion (I think they have gone bust) there are others around. It detects what would go back into the grid & diverts it to an immersion heater, so on average sun I get a reasonable amount of hot water 50- 55C ish, hot enough for most things. On the rare days as I said previously it can go up to 85C at which point the dump radiator kicks in, not that it hardly ever does. There is a thermostatic valve on the hot water outlet that limits the output water to 60C so it doesn't scald people.

Back off-topic, you mean? 🙂

This shows exactly why the FIT is wrong. The idea was that the lower efficiency of the PV cf. thermal would be compensated for as the owner was doing the network a service in exporting high-quality electricity at the demand side of the grid where it is needed rather than have to pay a power station and lose a lot of the energy in conversion and transmission. But, of course, instead of subsidising the cost and making it a requirement that any unused energy is exported, they decided to pay people to generate and then pay them again for exporting half (even if they don't export any at all). The divert-to-hot water method is a consequence.

Problem is that, while solar PV is better environmentally than gas for creating heat, it's not as good as solar thermal by a long margin. PV is also less efficient in terms of kWh per square foot, but the energy is more useful as it can be transported off-site (via the national grid), used to run motors, electronics, and even run heat pumps. Thermal may make more energy, but you have to store that energy, it is very low-grade energy (heat), and you can't do anything with it except use it as heat which may not even be very useful in hot weather.

As a friend of mine once put it, '[t]he government could have put the panels up for free and given the householder some incentive for the use of the roof and we would all have benefitted. Instead of which they decided to buy into, and promote, people's greed...'.

Much as I regret the near-demise of the FITs, they were all wrong anyway.

 

[Brambles]

Ric,

All very good points ( with which I agree ).

I think that there is a much bigger picture there too. If you look at it ( solar PV ) as a bit of a quirk. On the face if it, it was easier to instal than thermal solar, it took off and then got caught up in the embedded power debate. The level of uncontrolled generation grew quickly to such a level that it (embedded power) impacted (negatively) peak power prices for the major generators. That quickly moved on to large private investors shunning the UK power sector for future investment.

Sadly ( in my view) the consequence appears to be that all forms of power generation ( even coal) now seem to attract a Govt. subsidy of one sort or another.

As with all these issues, the consequence is that those who can least afford to pay their power bills are those who are impacted most.

If you couple that with the proposed (?) ban on gas fired domestic heating for future new builds - people are being burdened with using an energy source ( grid electricity) that is currently three times the price of gas to heat their homes.

That is not intended to be a political statement, but I earn a very good living and cringe at my power bills. How do those not so fortunate deal with it?

On the heating side - we really need a small, but knowledgeable lobby group, to educate and promote the benefits of solar thermal with the Dept for Business, Energy and Inovation.

Apologies if the above is not appropriate for this forum.

 

[Welder]

Ric,

All very good points ( with which I agree ).

I think that there is a much bigger picture there too. If you look at it ( solar PV ) as a bit of a quirk. On the face if it, it was easier to instal than thermal solar, it took off and then got caught up in the embedded power debate. The level of uncontrolled generation grew quickly to such a level that it (embedded power) impacted (negatively) peak power prices for the major generators. That quickly moved on to large private investors shunning the UK power sector for future investment.

Sadly ( in my view) the consequence appears to be that all forms of power generation ( even coal) now seem to attract a Govt. subsidy of one sort or another.

As with all these issues, the consequence is that those who can least afford to pay their power bills are those who are impacted most.

If you couple that with the proposed (?) ban on gas fired domestic heating for future new builds - people are being burdened with using an energy source ( grid electricity) that is currently three times the price of gas to heat their homes.

That is not intended to be a political statement, but I earn a very good living and cringe at my power bills. How do those not so fortunate deal with it?

On the heating side - we really need a small, but knowledgeable lobby group, to educate and promote the benefits of solar thermal with the Dept for Business, Energy and Inovation.

Apologies if the above is not appropriate for this forum.

Once again, the UK examines this issue from the ar5e end up while the civilised world laughs up its collective sleeves.

The UK & USA are the only places where one gets a subsidy for literally wasting energy.

Instead of fixing the millions of leaky buckets we call homes, and only at that point investigating alternative generation (which of course would then be hugely reduced), we do the pathetic job we do pouring hard earned energy into sh1te housing so the big energy cos can keep their earnings up.
Makes me ashamed to be a Brit.