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Solar panels that plug into your wall

Solar panels that plug into your wall

speckx

Comments (125)

  • toppa33
    A step closer to community-owned VPPs. Bring it on
  • ACCount39
    Solar panels are getting cheap enough for grid hook-ups, installation and regulatory approval to become the bottlenecks.Plug-in solar is suboptimal in many ways, but it does sidestep a lot of those hurdles. Not too surprised to see it on the rise.Another thing that might be worth keeping in mind is that plug-in solar panels are often installed vertically - i.e. balcony solar. In which case the peak of the panel's generation is offset to the edge of the typical "duck curve". If it gets popular enough to affect the grid, it might get the solar-induced demand slump larger, but make the edges even sharper.Would that make grid scale battery storage with its instant response even more important?
  • zanderwohl
    This may be a stupid question, but I've always heard to never plug a generator into an outlet - what makes these safe enough that you can?
  • michaelrpeskin
    How do these work when plugged in to only one of the split phases on a US-style 120 system? Because I'm a nerd, I know which legs of the phase go to which outlet in my house, but I don't expect everyone to pay attention to that. I assume something has to take that into account somewhere.
  • lol_catz
    My concern is what happens to grid stability as we replace synchronous generators, with their enormous rotational inertia, with thousands of grid-following inverters. They can all phase-lock to 60 Hz, but without enough inertia, what keeps that frequency stable during sudden changes in load or generation?
  • theoreticalmal
    I hope the next step for this is plug-in battery storage. All the on-grid battery hybrid inverters I can find in the USA are either single leg 120V or 12kW for $5k. I just want like 3kW dual-leg with support for a dozen kWh of batteries
  • pfdietz
    Perhaps also useful would be plug in batteries, especially if one has variable rates. Charge when cheap, discharge when expensive.One constraint on these I've read is that if you have sources and sinks on the same circuit, you might overload the line without tripping the breaker at the box. If I'm understanding this correctly this has caused them to limit the power of plug-in solar to a fraction of what a single circuit could potentially carry.
  • rkagerer
    Does this seem like a bad idea from a safety perspective?With fixed solar installs you're likely to find some kind of switch or labeled breaker to disconnect. The system is designed with a central "power in" that's (hopefully) obvious/proximate when you're standing in the breaker room.These things could be injecting power anywhere, so you need to know they're there (which may be less apparent than roof/field panels) and go around and pull the plug(s). Relevant to electricians, firefighters, etc.
  • bigwheels
  • tdhz77
    If lightning strikes does the risk of fire increase with solar ac ?
  • sleepyguy
  • 7e
    This is fun, but utility-scale solar is far cheaper.