I've no idea why but it's suspicious isn't it?
Nick
Hardly suspicious, probably just reflecting the fact that solar farms are connected at distribution network level rather than the transmission network. It's certainly true that solar generation doesn't represent an enormous proportion of our consumption nationally (something around 4% on average, at the moment it's providing about 11% or 3.6GW) but the idea that it's all wasted because it can't be used is pretty wide of the mark.
There would be no incentive for outfits like NextEnergy to invest upwards of £40m into subsidy-free projects like Llanwern if they weren't going to be able to sell their power. Llanwern generates something like 75MWp, so quite a significant contribution.
I don't think the statement that domestic generation doesn't reach the grid can be re processed as the idea that it's all wasted! What is consumed on site is obviously highly beneficial and significant to the individual. What is wasted is the payment to those individuals for a "notional" feed to the grid.
My source never claimed the big projects were similar to an individual's roof panels.
I wonder why we would bother trying to defend something (the illusion that excess domestic production can be sent to share with others) when it's looking pretty obvious to me that the message was designed purely to facilitate a move towards more domestic involvement which, of course, does help reduce the demands on the grid so is beneficial in that way.
In the same way, the belief that generation from domestic use does in fact reach the grid just because alot of the paperwork that has to be filled in to fit it seems a little naive to me when we know that the authors of the paperwork are the same people who sold us the illusory incentive in the first place.
Also I wonder if the paperwork is the same in France as here in UK?
I'm looking forward to asking him about that point though and will report back. It's really interesting to hear both sides of this for me.
Nick
