[HN Gopher] Australia Struggling with Oversupply of Solar Power
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       Australia Struggling with Oversupply of Solar Power
        
       Author : m463
       Score  : 8 points
       Date   : 2024-12-03 21:49 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.abc.net.au)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.abc.net.au)
        
       | srameshc wrote:
       | Can they next build the infrastructure to export to other
       | countries since they have huge potential to produce more solar
       | power ?
        
         | toomuchtodo wrote:
         | There is a project to do that in the Northern Territory
         | (SunCable), the rest of the country is rapidly moving to
         | batteries and more renewables. Australia will reach ~100%
         | renewables by 2030, based on current generation and storage
         | trajectories.
         | 
         | https://www.suncable.energy/
         | 
         | https://openelectricity.org.au/
         | 
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42215601 (citations)
        
         | bennysaurus wrote:
         | A high voltage DC line is being built to Singapore now from a
         | solar generator in Northern Australia, so it's definitely
         | doable to send over that distance (around 3,000mi).
         | 
         | I would like to see more storage though in its various forms;
         | the oversupply is during peak daytime hours, however there's
         | still large draw at night that could be offset.
        
       | toomuchtodo wrote:
       | Previous:
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42305762 - Dec 2024 (1
       | comment)
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42215403 - Nov 2024 (5
       | comments)
        
       | rstuart4133 wrote:
       | Maybe some kind EE can explain here why they want this.
       | 
       | As I understand it, their is a limit to how much solar they want
       | on the grid because they want to keep it stable. The solar
       | follows the voltage (ie, syncs with the phase) or an inertial
       | generator, which is a coal fired power plant or synchronous
       | condenser. I'm guessing if there spinning iron there is nothing
       | to follow, and the grid becomes unstable [0]. So they don't want
       | solar forcing all inertial generation off the grid.
       | 
       | But, don't home solar inverters shut down once the grid voltage
       | exceeds some threshold? In which case, they will remove
       | themselves automatically if there is too much generation. So why
       | do they want to add a manual override as well?
       | 
       | [0] That's a wild guess. The counter argument to that is these
       | inertial governors are "just" analogue computers communicating
       | through the grid to agree on what the phase / frequency should
       | be. Solar inverters are also controlled by computers. Yes, they
       | are digital computers not analogue, but today's digital computer
       | any emulate any analogue system - including spinning armatures
       | weighing many tons. The answer is probably "we don't trust the
       | programmers to get the simulation right". I'm a programmer, and
       | neither would I. But it's not hard to test and certify.
        
       | ZeroGravitas wrote:
       | The URL slug debunks the misleading headline:
       | 
       | solar-flooded-australia-told-its-okay-to-waste-some
        
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       (page generated 2024-12-03 23:01 UTC)