Comment by markvdb | Hacker News Reader

Comment by markvdb | Hacker News Reader

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Solar has won the market's backing. Whatever Pennsylvania politicians decide, they better take that into account.

In most places, solar is perfectly competitive without subsidies. Take my prosperous corner of the EU. No direct subsidies, nor the indirect subsidy net metering is. .37€/kWh average residential all-in electricity price caused a solar boom anyway.

The short term result of that solar boom is an ever steeper duck curve [0]. Negative electricity pricing more frequently and longer. Lots of creativity aligning production and demand. Think dynamic pricing, energy storage both as heat and electricity, and more. Great to see these products and services springing up.

I see early signs of much larger actors adjusting to the changed electricity landscape. Ever larger scale industrial scale clients are embracing the entire spectrum of solar, electric steam generation, heat pumps and battery storage. Exciting things with the market providing a strong tail wind.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_curve

> Solar has won the market's backing. Whatever Pennsylvania politicians decide, they better take that into account.

I would argue it really depends and is highly dependent upon the region. British Columbia, Canada is mostly hydro-electric. Are we going to get rid of all the dams for solar in a mostly cloudy and rainy province? We have to choose what works best for the region. Solar works great in Southern California; Arizona; Florida; Spain; Southern France, not as well in places like Washington; British Columbia; or Scotland where alternatives are more conducive to the climate.

Pennsylvania already has a strong market in nuclear; hydro; and wind, with very reliable power when not flooded or ice-stormed. We are also larger then some EU countries, and get lots of snow in the Western/Northern areas of the state that are better served by those other methods over solar. I have also never paid over .12kW/h (.09kW/h now) near a major river. When I was looking into solar panels, my average was going to be between .16-.25kW/h (own-lease range). That's a hard sell to a lot of people with little payoff for most individuals in the state.

In PA, for most of the state, solar is better provided by requiring new public buildings or parking garages/lots have panels, rather then individuals.

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