How cheap solar power is disrupting traditional power grids

#cheap #solar #power #disrupting #traditional #power #grids

Public utility model that produces electricity centrally and then provides it for consumers invented almost 200 years ago and now faces a strong competition with the growing trend of roof solar installations.

This change is especially clear in Pakistan, which has recently emerged as the third largest importer in the world of the Chinese solar panel. According to economists, although this arrival offers a clean alternative to expensive diesel generators and coal contracts, it has important challenges for the national grid.

Since more households and businesses choose self -generating electricity, the burden of grid restoration and traditional electricity costs falls on the faster -falling customer base, which makes prices high and encourages the grid to be disconnected.

This trend is global. South Africa’s government -owned energy firm Escum has repeatedly fuel the solar boom due to repeated “shedding”, which causes significant financial pressure on the municipal governments.

Municipal governments will have to buy expensive electricity faster from Escum to sell consumers. By November, they had a bill of Billion 5 billion, or 1.2 % of GD with the firm.

In addition, Lebanon has seen a dramatic increase in solar installations since 2019, wealthy neighborhoods in Beirut are now covered in panels as state power generation is strictly limited.

Even in the United States, some people with high energy prices and blackouts are being indicated to find off grid solutions, such as solar panels, batteries and diesel generators, which cost close to 9 % of such system annually.

The hope of hopes, these trends offers a vision straight from the green movement of the 1970s when an energy analyst, Amit Lyunis, developed a “soft energy path” to explain the future, which will be renewable, decentralized and small -scale.

He wrote, “A rich industrial economy can work beneficially without any central power plants.”

Although hopefuls see it as a विकेंद्रीकृत, as it moves towards the future of renewable energy, the challenges remain. Due to scale economies, large -scale solar forms are more efficient than individual roof systems.

In addition, the high cost of solar often makes it accessible only for wealthy, increasing energy inequality.

In Pakistan, this means that poor citizens bear the burden of grid costs, while in Lebanon, the lack of rules has reduced the market, low quality, incredible solar systems.

According to the Middle East Institute’s Jessica OBD, the lack of regulation in Lebanon has made the country a “low -quality solar system and batteries dumpster.”

Policy makers are now looking for solutions to effectively connect solar with the existing grid. “You can make the solar game good with the grid,” said Jenny Chase of a research firm Bloombergenf.

According to economists, in Pakistan, the issue has been developed by the high -cost coal power and billing system which is not in accordance with demand.

Many solar users rely as a backup on the grid, when their panels are not produced, artificially “free riding” is effectively “cheap”. Eliminating privileges such as “net metering” can help distribute grid maintenance costs more fairly.

Finally, the best solution may include energy firms in accordance with this new competitive landscape. Although विकेंद्रीकृत energy production is unstable, it also forces providers to improve.

The roof solar has emerged as a powerful alternative, which has challenged the long -term concept of natural monopoly in energy supply.