Time for 2026 updates to my annual “opinions about solar” thread, now with storage.
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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!
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41. Achieving a low-carbon transition, for most countries, will not look like winning a war or marching while waving flags. It is the ability to say "no thank you, we do not want what you are selling" to the petrostates, and walking (or cycling, or taking a bus, or driving an EV) away.
(The End, for now).
@solar_chase Great Thread (as always)
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@literatesavant no, I was just trying to freshen it all up a bit!
@solar_chase got it. I continue to go back and forth about whether it is feasible as part of the transition, especially here in Australia where we don't currently have any.
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3. Solar is struggling because it’s running into saturation effects in major markets, where there’s already plenty of power in sunny hours, and adding more solar panels generates the most power in the same hours. The power stack in Germany in a sunny week now looks like this.
@solar_chase With forthcoming changes in NL per 1-1-2027 where solar exports only receive base epex is moving a *lot* of batteries.
If you frequent deals on Pepper or through Aliexpress you can get a 800Watt 1.9kWh plugin battery for roughly 350 euros with free shipping from France. (Zendure Solarflow 800+)
The CBS currently has 79k (september) registered (mandatory, but not policed) home batteries. These range from 1.5-8kWh in size.
It appears 5kWh isn't enough for night with HP.
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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 @flaki We have a reasonable amount of space but certainly not enough to randomly put up fences. Our actual fences aren’t especially suited, being mostly heavily shaded except a WNW facing one, right next to the public pavement.
We’ve DIY installed 6 panels on the almost flat roof of the small shed - and yes, same observation, they are great on overcast days. But also very seasonal - 4.3kWh on a sunny October day vs 8kWh in June. -
@xenogon @flaki We have a reasonable amount of space but certainly not enough to randomly put up fences. Our actual fences aren’t especially suited, being mostly heavily shaded except a WNW facing one, right next to the public pavement.
We’ve DIY installed 6 panels on the almost flat roof of the small shed - and yes, same observation, they are great on overcast days. But also very seasonal - 4.3kWh on a sunny October day vs 8kWh in June.@xenogon @flaki We’re currently re-roofing the garden house due to whoever built it having done a botch job - no chance it would have ever been waterproof, so the wood started rotting, plus they broke local planning rules. Anyway, there’s space for 14 panels on there, plus another 2-3 on the west wall, so that’s next on our solar-everywhere quest.
At least the panels themselves are super cheap on the used market, people replacing perfectly good 5-10yo installations.
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41. Achieving a low-carbon transition, for most countries, will not look like winning a war or marching while waving flags. It is the ability to say "no thank you, we do not want what you are selling" to the petrostates, and walking (or cycling, or taking a bus, or driving an EV) away.
(The End, for now).
@solar_chase Thanks so much for your very informative thread.
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@xenogon @flaki We’re currently re-roofing the garden house due to whoever built it having done a botch job - no chance it would have ever been waterproof, so the wood started rotting, plus they broke local planning rules. Anyway, there’s space for 14 panels on there, plus another 2-3 on the west wall, so that’s next on our solar-everywhere quest.
At least the panels themselves are super cheap on the used market, people replacing perfectly good 5-10yo installations.️Yes I recently bought some good used 375w panels for £30 each, but for reasons I won't go into here we don't really have suitable places to deploy them.
14 panels is huge for an outbuilding - we have 6x375w so far in use.
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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 This is so, so true!
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41. Achieving a low-carbon transition, for most countries, will not look like winning a war or marching while waving flags. It is the ability to say "no thank you, we do not want what you are selling" to the petrostates, and walking (or cycling, or taking a bus, or driving an EV) away.
(The End, for now).
@solar_chase As always, thanks very much for this!
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@xenogon @flaki These are an older format of course, about 165x100cm each (12x 285Wp, 2+2 325Wp) but yes, the building is 6.8x4.15m (minus a corner) which would be a rather lovely sized room if it was in the house! The roof is in dappled shade until about midday due to some trees so yield won’t be amazing, but with that amount of area it seemed crazy to let the opportunity slide when we were re-roofing anyway.
I got these panels for €15/285Wp and €20/325Wp! -
@xenogon @pmdj yeah in the same way old EVs are finding new life in stationary storage for years/decades, I think franken-farms of old hand-me-down PV will be increasingly a thing, as space restricted installs (such as rooftops and balconies) will inevitably be replacing them as the tech and efficiency evolves way faster than actual panel life/degradation.
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@xenogon @pmdj yeah in the same way old EVs are finding new life in stationary storage for years/decades, I think franken-farms of old hand-me-down PV will be increasingly a thing, as space restricted installs (such as rooftops and balconies) will inevitably be replacing them as the tech and efficiency evolves way faster than actual panel life/degradation.
@flaki @xenogon Yeah; there’s still a substantial cost to all the non-panel components - wire is very expensive these days, and the various safety components - fire service cutoff switch, overvoltage protector, string fuses, etc. - rapidly add up. Still, I’ll save over €1k vs brand new panels.
I’m still wary of buying batteries used, the discount isn’t that great and they’re much more of a black box. -
32. A few interesting bellwether markets! Bulgaria, with 2025 peak power demand of 7.4GW, already has 4GW of batteries and a further 2-4GW in the pipeline, for 16GWh total. It is well connected with neighbouring grids and may become a short-term balancing hub.
@solar_chase is it reasonable that I get a bit confused by posts like these that mix GW with GWh? The "for" suggests an addition that makes no sense; I'm not trying to be pedantic, just to understand what's going on.
