Simple calculation. If you pack solar panels on the giant flat roofs of shopping malls (and maybe add them as shade covers on the giant parking places AND add some big storage batteries, you can offer FREE charging for all EVs, cover most of the power usage of the complete shopping mall and on good days even sell electricity to the grid. Same for airports. What's not to like? cc @isotopp
My point being: Don't see solar as a way to sell electricity, but as dog-fooding, as we software people say. Meaning to use things yourself first as a priority. I did the math. For most rural areas, with this approach, we can end up with effectively free electricity for the majority of the people, IF we accept a bit of change. Like switching off fridges during the night when we sleep. Fridges are quite good at surviving power outages fr up to 24 hours. Etc.
@jwildeboer I would love to buy a fridge that has 1-0 control input informing about surplus from PV. We already have this for wallboxes. I know I can use a smart socket. But that is not the same. I have to control it from somewhere and when I cut the power I lose the light in the fridge.
@mirek@jwildeboer seriously, why? If you don't open the fridge during the night, it doesn't have to run the compressor at all and new fridges have minimal standby consumption. If you wanna run it according to solar energy production during the day, you will get variability in temperature which is probably not the best for stuff stored in the fridge.
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