I really wonder how Europe is gonna manage the extra grid demand given decades of under investment in energy production. More cables to countries still investing in nuclear?
Sure it's possible to build massive renewable systems across Europe, but these large projects require governmental commitments that exceed elected time frames.
For example one of the first things we need if we are to phase out CO2 driving is a decent inter-European rail system. Even going capital to capital can be hard. And since we are running full speed into AI unemployment, let's make that rail system for free, and save some universal benefit payments. I think the free train trials in various countries this year already proved very popular.
See https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/europe/europe-trains-eu...
"10 new rail projects that could revolutionise travelling across Europe by train"
A promising solution is vehicle-to-grid, using the battery in your car to store and draw solar energy from. It all depends on where you are located and what your energy demands are though. I can provide all of my yearly energy needs with about 14 panels, which includes heating, but not a car (I don't use one), but I'm not off grid.
I was tempted to stay grid-connected, but the max energy I can sell back, is limited to what grid energy I use. i.e. they still get all their extra fees.
I have installed a 12kW system in 2018 with 20kWh of storage. I also have heat-pumps for sanitary hot water with a 100L tank and AC in summer + an EV. I admit that in winter or particularly cloudy weeks I still need to get some energy from the grid, but 1) that's likely because the house I am in was built in the 80s and the thermal insulations is terrible compared to modern materials [1] and 2) if I were to put something like dual photovoltaic-thermal hybrid panels [2] likely that wouldn't be an issue anyway.
[1] https://www.thermablok.co.uk/#:~:text=Classed%20as%20a%20Sup.... [2] https://dualsun.com/en/products/dualsun-spring/
Sure it's a big power draw, but you can significantly downsize your battery system, which is presumably also a big power draw.
Or do you not have a big battery system now, and only run the high energy appliances like the oven during the day when you have lots of power?
Yeah it is a small system so far, so I even serialize some of my usage, but I dont see the point scaling it up too much, since the cloudy day generation is so poor. So rather than EV I probably go with an eBike.