Time for 2026 updates to my annual “opinions about solar” thread, now with storage.
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23. Balcony solar: sure, you can put solar on anything. It works at any scale. But the amounts are tiny - this is not really an alternative to building large amounts of rooftop or ground mount solar.
@solar_chase balcony solar has worked really well for us this year in the UK, it more than offset the additional cost/usage of our aircon. It doesn’t make sense for us to be on an existing tariff where we get cheap solar power from the grid.
I did buy into a wind farm first, before I got balcony solar, but that fell apart. I can’t do much, but balcony solar is one of the few things that I can do. Great money saver!
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Time for 2026 updates to my annual “opinions about solar” thread, now with storage. If you like these, you might like edition 2 of my book, Solar Power Finance Without The Jargon. A 30% discount code WSQ0437 is valid on publisher website til end-November 2026.
It's the book I should have read before trying to get a job in renewable energy. Reviewers say it is “to the point, important, and taught me a lot” and “surprisingly entertaining, don’t be put off by the title”.
https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/q0437#t=aboutBook
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Achieving a low-carbon transition, for most countries, will not look like winning a war or marching while waving flags. etc:
I would add, having highly distributed energy production is a distinct advantage
with regard to resilience against sabotage, attack, natural disasters.If citizen owned there is also great incentive to protect it.
Knocking out thousands of solar farms and battery storage systems would be difficult, possible exception Nuclear high burst EMP .
@Kerplunk
or a backdoor
@solar_chase -
24. “But you can own your own power plant!”.
No normal person wants to own their own power plant. Apart from us weirdoes, most people want to buy affordable, reliable power from the grid and have someone else make the investment and worry about the details.
@solar_chase yes, but a few photovoltaic solar panels and small vertical axis wind turbines, with a home battery backup system creating a minimal microgrid is very exciting. Yes, @czds and I do belong to the class of weirdos you cite
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22. It should be all over for the new internal combustion engine car market. The only reason it doesn’t seem to be is that a lot of people don’t seem to realise how times have changed, and still repeat old talking points.
@solar_chase My mom was told this the other day, being scoffed at for her Polestar 2: "And what will you do if the chinese decide to turn them off?"
And talking to her she sounded genuinely worried, but then I asked her: "And what will the rest of us do? My car is also an electric vehicle, they just half-arsed it so it still needs gasoline. But you think it will do anything if the electronics are killed? Who do you think build the computers in all the combustion cars of the last 20 years?"
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@solar_chase My mom was told this the other day, being scoffed at for her Polestar 2: "And what will you do if the chinese decide to turn them off?"
And talking to her she sounded genuinely worried, but then I asked her: "And what will the rest of us do? My car is also an electric vehicle, they just half-arsed it so it still needs gasoline. But you think it will do anything if the electronics are killed? Who do you think build the computers in all the combustion cars of the last 20 years?"
@solar_chase I get that a lot of the ones older than 5-8 years are not connected to the internet all the time, so those are theoretically safe... But theoretically only goes so far. If they have bluetooth, they are attackable without physical access directly.
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^ this. I'd love to find a small quiet wind generator my neighbours would barely notice. Probably vertical axis suitable for turbulent wind in stealth locations.
Grid independence is relatively easy in summer, impossible without wind in winter (I'm in northern england).
@xenogon @flaki Wind generators are straight-up illegal on residential zoned land in our part of Austria*; there are mass-produced generators for a moderate price out there, but check local planning/zoning laws.
One interesting aspect of "balcony" solar is that it's usually vertical/near-vertically mounted, leading to lower seasonality. So far, we only have 2 vertical panels, but they achieve 1/3 of their peak monthly yield in Dec & Jan. @solar_chase's graph for roof solar is more like 1/8. -
@xenogon @flaki Wind generators are straight-up illegal on residential zoned land in our part of Austria*; there are mass-produced generators for a moderate price out there, but check local planning/zoning laws.
One interesting aspect of "balcony" solar is that it's usually vertical/near-vertically mounted, leading to lower seasonality. So far, we only have 2 vertical panels, but they achieve 1/3 of their peak monthly yield in Dec & Jan. @solar_chase's graph for roof solar is more like 1/8.@xenogon @flaki We're still working on renovations to our house, but when we get around to having the insulation improved on the exterior walls, I'm planning on installing a substantial number of panels along the walls. I'm surprised it's not more popular.
* FWIW, this restriction doesn't reflect our state's attitude to wind turbines in general. Over 3TWh of the 10TWh annual consumption are covered by wind; we can see wind turbines from our house, they are absolutely everywhere around here.
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@xenogon @flaki Wind generators are straight-up illegal on residential zoned land in our part of Austria*; there are mass-produced generators for a moderate price out there, but check local planning/zoning laws.
One interesting aspect of "balcony" solar is that it's usually vertical/near-vertically mounted, leading to lower seasonality. So far, we only have 2 vertical panels, but they achieve 1/3 of their peak monthly yield in Dec & Jan. @solar_chase's graph for roof solar is more like 1/8.I also have some vertical panels, and as you say they are much less seasonal, maybe lower output on average, but more in winter when it's most needed.
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I also have some vertical panels, and as you say they are much less seasonal, maybe lower output on average, but more in winter when it's most needed.
@xenogon @pmdj yeah both the official permitting and "NIMBY" neighbor consent aspects of residential wind are hell, sadly.
RE: vertical solar panels, yupp, absolutely. I'm just finishing a small pilot installation of an 8-panel (~1kWp) vertical bifacial "solar fence". As noted above and earlier¹ by me, on this latitude vertical panels stay clean/unobstructed, are better suited to capture the low-riding winter sun, bifaciality helps you capture more diffuse light on cloudy days & reflected light from snow cover (this is the only part that doesn't apply for a wall-type install) and with the abundance of cheap PV you can just "oversize" your installation to get you appreciable amounts of production year round (and be absolutely inundated in the summer
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@xenogon @pmdj yeah both the official permitting and "NIMBY" neighbor consent aspects of residential wind are hell, sadly.
RE: vertical solar panels, yupp, absolutely. I'm just finishing a small pilot installation of an 8-panel (~1kWp) vertical bifacial "solar fence". As noted above and earlier¹ by me, on this latitude vertical panels stay clean/unobstructed, are better suited to capture the low-riding winter sun, bifaciality helps you capture more diffuse light on cloudy days & reflected light from snow cover (this is the only part that doesn't apply for a wall-type install) and with the abundance of cheap PV you can just "oversize" your installation to get you appreciable amounts of production year round (and be absolutely inundated in the summer
)Yes to all that, except that you obviously have way more space than me, I couldn't do that here! Are yours pointing east/west?
I also have some horizontal panels on a flat roof which do very well in diffuse overcast, better than a single vertical by far. They do need washing way more though.
We don't have snow on the ground for long here usually, but that would certainly enhance vertical performance.
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Yes to all that, except that you obviously have way more space than me, I couldn't do that here! Are yours pointing east/west?
I also have some horizontal panels on a flat roof which do very well in diffuse overcast, better than a single vertical by far. They do need washing way more though.
We don't have snow on the ground for long here usually, but that would certainly enhance vertical performance.
@xenogon @pmdj that install from last year is East-West (which is inarguably more efficient than) turned into one long south-north strip For Reasons.
Ultimately I think a palette/10-12kWp of vertical bifacial PV (a roughly 40m run) facing directly south is the end game here. These panels were easily accessible (found them in a local builder's market) and the aluminum mounts were also the most accessible/cheapest secure DIY mounting mechanism lest building a rack or just throwing the panels on the ground, they served exceedingly well for that investment.
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25. Agrivoltaics: sure, you can put solar on anything. It may even help, eg in this blistering summer a bit of shade would have helped many European crops. But it’s looking for preferential support, because there are reasons farmers currently prefer open, machine-accessible fields.
@solar_chase If fields need to be open for machine harvesting but there's PV in the way isn't that hortivoltaics?
Does grazing (agrivoltaics) require machine access to the fields, other than irrigation? Publications I've read on agrivoltaics show a net benefit for farmers having their sheep share the paddock with PV (drip line grass growth, shade etc) so there's no need for any subsidies.
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37. Nonetheless, it will be very difficult to reach net zero emissions, and getting rid of the last 10% of fossil fuel will be the hardest. Gas turbine orders hit a record 67GW worldwide in 1H 2026 (paywall).
@solar_chase what will be the final 10%? Transportation?
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Time for 2026 updates to my annual “opinions about solar” thread, now with storage. If you like these, you might like edition 2 of my book, Solar Power Finance Without The Jargon. A 30% discount code WSQ0437 is valid on publisher website til end-November 2026.
It's the book I should have read before trying to get a job in renewable energy. Reviewers say it is “to the point, important, and taught me a lot” and “surprisingly entertaining, don’t be put off by the title”.
https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/q0437#t=aboutBook
@solar_chase Brava Jenny, a fabulously positive update. Thank you!
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Time for 2026 updates to my annual “opinions about solar” thread, now with storage. If you like these, you might like edition 2 of my book, Solar Power Finance Without The Jargon. A 30% discount code WSQ0437 is valid on publisher website til end-November 2026.
It's the book I should have read before trying to get a job in renewable energy. Reviewers say it is “to the point, important, and taught me a lot” and “surprisingly entertaining, don’t be put off by the title”.
https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/q0437#t=aboutBook
@solar_chase I notice that you didn't mention nuclear this year. Have your opinions on that changed at all?
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4. This leads to negative feedback mechanisms: low wholesale power prices in sunny hours, which in forward-looking jurisdictions are passed on to consumers. For example, Australia’s Solar Sharer scheme obliges many utilities to offer a price plan with 3 hours of free power around midday.
@solar_chase here really is a good use case for smart devices, dishwasher that waits for the power to be free, or a fridge that freezes ballast ice, battery bank reducing peak costs. There is a limit though, you have to be careful about stressing the grid.
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... or by closing down all Chinese solar inverters from China...
Chinese Inverters can be remotely switched OFF.
In Germany, on larger installations that is a requirement for ALL.
It is also being suggested by the Industry Lobbyist gas and atom friend Katherina Reich that Balcony solar will have to meet the same demands.My assumption is that Chinese Engineers shook their heads and implimented a system that fitted demands but was not resilient.
Demands for an EU / National government backdoor that is
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13. Europeans shouldn't feel guilty about using electricity for airconditioning (or reversible heatpumps), it already mostly comes from the sun, especially if you pre-cool. This is good news for hot countries as well. Heat is deadly.
@solar_chase I really like that you included this. AC really needs to be treated like a basic human right given the temperature increases we're already responsible for; pointing out that we can power it mostly with renewables eases some of the resistance to the idea from the left.
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@solar_chase I notice that you didn't mention nuclear this year. Have your opinions on that changed at all?
@literatesavant no, I was just trying to freshen it all up a bit!
