Replacement of Diesel with Solar Can Be Complicated
Here’s a wonderful discussion that illustrates how an apparent no-brainer in terms of the replacement of diesel with solar on an island nation (Anguilla) can become a complicated mess.
In particular, the chairman of the Anguilla Renewable Energy Office says, “As we all know, you can’t store electricity, it has to be used when it is generated.” (They need a new chairman.) Also, per a local solar consultant: “(where) Jamaica, St. Lucia, Greneda, and other islands have implemented net-metering in some form, Anguilla has not. This means that you can have solar, but you cannot interconnect it with the grid. All the developed countries of the world incentivize solar, Anguilla outlaws it.”
Yep, that’s a mess all right.
Some clarification is necessary.
Exactly what is meant by not being able to interconnect with the grid?
Suppose that a household solar installation had a switch to switch the house between solar and grid. That way the solar system would not be connected to the grid. Would that be permitted?
The island nations in question use Diesel power for generating electricity. In general, Diesel generators can be brought up to full power within a few minutes of a cold start and can do an excellent job of load following. Also, Diesel engines, while most efficient at full power, are still reasonably efficient at part load. Thus, it would make sense to permit owners of solar systems to send excess power back to the grid and be paid for it and to get power from the grid when necessary. That is a very different situation from what exists in large countries which generate most of their power from coal since coal-fired steam systems rapidly lose efficiency as the load is reduced and load following reduces the life of the equipment.
Whether in all cases renewable sources of energy could economically replace Diesel power I don’t know; I have my doubts. However, it may be that renewables could be economically justified as a means to reduce the amount of Diesel fuel consumed and extend the life of the Diesel generators. Even if it cannot be economically justified, if private individuals are willing to invest in renewables, they should not be discouraged from doing so.
The Caribbean islands are not the only islands for which renewables should be considered. There are also Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Nauru, Tuvalu, Samoa, Cook Islands, etc. Probably renewables could economically play an important rôle in all of them.
Here there’s absolutely no validity to the arguments against solar…
The massive diesel generators are currently on the island, and the electric grid is already up and running. So no new expensive infrastructure is needed. Solar power can simply be installed, which would cause the diesel generators to be powered down during the day… then the diesel generators can be ramped back up at night.
The islanders would save a fortune by using the lower cost solar energy during the day.. then they’d spend the same amount as they currently do using the higher cost diesel energy at night. There’s no problem, and no storage needed – as a diesel generator is sufficiently flexible that it can ramp up and tamp down as the weather demands during the day, then ramp up for nightly generation.
The only issue I see is land use. To make a significant dent in 160 MWs, you need quite a chunk of extremely valuable land.
True, and good point.
I was speaking more to progress rather than completion.
If a person or company wished to put up solar panels, then they could do so easily, and that power could easily be accommodated by the grid – as the diesel generators have fast response times for ramping up and tamping down.
It would be quite cost effective for any given customer to buy some panels and sell excess energy to the grid… That would be progress.
I don’t know nearly enough about Anguilla to determine at what point the cost effectiveness of said progress starts to diminish. But it’s cheap to set up a meter that runs backwards… and solar – at a LCOE of ~$250-$300/MWh – is cheap compared to diesel-sourced electricity. So as long as customers can sell back to the grid at ~$50/MWh less than the electricity provider sells the same energy for, there should be no reason rapid progress cannot be made.
This is true for all island nations or states (Hawaii) that are not significantly removed from the tropics.
Very true. Thanks.