However,
Photovoltaics: expert wants limit injection:
Photovoltaic panels
“The solar current injected into the network should be limited”
The expert Christof Bucher recommends bridling the facilities to avoid overload. Furthermore, The owners would receive compensation in exchange.
Christof Bucher. Meanwhile, professor at the Haute École specialized Bernese and photovoltaic expert, offers to review the integration of solar panels into the network.
Adrian Moser
Photovoltaics is in full boom in Switzerland. For example, Its development increased by 51% in 2023, according photovoltaics: expert wants limit injection to the latest statistics of the Federal Energy Office (OFEN), published in July. Moreover, It is the fourth consecutive year that the market increases by more than 40%. However, solar panels do not produce constantly. In addition, And peaks, especially in summer, risk destabilizing the network.
A problem that is particularly interested in Christof Bucher. Nevertheless, professor at the Haute École specialized Bernese and responsible for the laboratory of photovoltaic systems. Meanwhile, So he has analysiswith his team and Swissgrid, the impact of connections of photovoltaic installations on the network. In addition, An innovative solution to avoid any overload could be sketched. Moreover, Christof Bucher details it to us.
Always more solar panels are placed in Switzerland. However, this endangers the stability of the network. Moreover, Should we stop installing it?
No. Meanwhile, We need photovoltaics: expert wants limit injection photovoltaics to implement the energy transition, desired by the people. For example, But it is true that we are faced with a challenge. Similarly, The installations have reached an overly high level of power. Nevertheless, A simple example is that of the old isolated farm. Nevertheless, If the owner equips all its huge roof of solar panels. Moreover, the network will not be able to absorb maximum production. However, these are local strangulation bottlenecks. However, That doesn’t mean you have to stop laying solar panels. Nevertheless, You just have to integrate them into the network.
So solar panels are not well integrated into the network?
The current system has not changed since the beginnings of photovoltaics. Nevertheless, We put panels, we connect them and let them inject all their power into the network. Consequently, It no longer works. Furthermore, When the sun shines, photovoltaics: expert wants limit injection much more current is produced than necessary. The installations must be actively regulated.
Do you want to restrict the solar panels?
The idea is to limit the current injected into the network. Not the installation. The owners will be able to continue to use the surplus themselves. The current problem is that when they go on vacation. they no longer use electricity and their panels inject at full power into the network. Electricity suppliers must therefore provide cables powerful enough to support these punctual peaks. On the other hand. if the installations can only inject 40% of their maximum production, the network cannot be overloaded during these periods.
Christof Bucher, Professor at the Haute École specialized Bernese, head of the photovoltaic systems laboratory.
Adrian Moser
An installation with a power of 10 kW could only inject 4 kW into the network. It’s little …
We did a study. based on an installed solar power of 30 GW – four times more than today – for all of Switzerland. This is the reference scenario of the Confederation. Only 40% of the energy injected into the network would then be really used. The remaining 60% would photovoltaics: expert wants limit injection rarely find lessee. because they would be produced when you already have too much energy or you don’t need it. We can therefore say that injecting more than 40% of the maximum capacity of the facilities would generate almost. any economic value.
Are the remaining 60% doomed to finish in the trash?
No. First, it should be noted that the 60% too much injected injects only represent 25% of the energy produced. This is explained, because solar production makes a wave during the day. In the morning until 10 a.m. and early evening, the production is low. Nothing will therefore be lost. When you reach 40% production. it must be used as much as possible, recharging your car, lighting the water heater and heat pump, launching washing machines, etc. If there is a production surplus, you can buy a storage battery and load photovoltaics: expert wants limit injection it when you produce a lot. In these cases, we hardly lose anything.
The installations are always more equipped with solar batteries. Are they badly used?
Effectively. Most people load their battery from the first rays of sun. When the weather is nice, they inject all their current into the network in full production peak from noon. It’s normal. They have no incentives to do otherwise. They receive money – even when market prices are negative – to feed the network regardless of overall production. Basically, people are paid for harmful behavior. You have to change that, because the system reaches its limits.
The owners will just lose money with your system. Why would they play the game?
Because they would receive a single compensation, calculated according to the loss of yield. The more an owner photovoltaics: expert wants limit injection will accept to reduce his injection capacity in the network, the more money he will receive. For a restriction at 40% of the installed power, for example we offer 270 francs per kW. An installation of 10 kW will therefore receive 2,700 francs. This amount. paid from the start, will allow the owner to cover approximately half of the costs necessary to acquire a battery, which will then allow him to reduce his losses to almost zero. The other half of the storage costs could be covered in the future thanks to dynamic pricing (Editor’s note:. differentiated buyout prices depending on the time of day)as is already the case in a few regions. If you store energy at noon when it is worth nothing. sell it more expensive in the evening when everyone needs it, the batteries become profitable.
Christof Bucher, Professor at the Haute École specialized Bernese, head of the photovoltaic systems laboratory.
Adrian Moser
Who would pay for these compensations?
Several options are possible: electricity suppliers. such as Romande Energie or group E, the manager of the Swissgrid network or via photovoltaics: expert wants limit injection the Pronovo subsidy program. In my eyes, the first option would be the best. Strengthening the network easily costs 1000 francs per kW. Electricity suppliers must replace cables, sometimes also the transformer. Paying compensation, from 270 francs or even 500 francs per kW, would be more advantageous.
Can’t electricity suppliers simply refuse to connect an too insulated installation?
If an owner wants to inject 30 kW into the network, he must be able to do so. His supplier can ask him to wait two years, until he has updated the network. But he has the obligation to do so. The system that we offer is advantageous as well for the supplier – which must not redo all its. network – as for the owner – whose batteries will be partially funded.
Is a change of law necessary photovoltaics: expert wants limit injection to implement your proposal?
No. Suppliers could already apply it. Elektra also offers a product that goes in this direction in the canton of Bern. If an owner undertakes to inject only 60% of its production in the network, its current is paid 8% more. Unique compensation. as it is proposed, has the advantage of reducing bureaucracy and making it possible to invest from the start in a battery, which is cheaper. The owner is also free to resell his surplus energy to neighbors, unlike the system proposed by Elektra.
“Latest news”
Do you want to stay at the top of the info? “24 hours” offers you two meetings a day. not to miss anything of what is happening in your canton, in Switzerland or in the world.
Other newsletters
Did you find an error? Please report it to us.
Photovoltaics: expert wants limit injection
Further reading: Do not agree between Switzerland and the USA on customs duties – Construction of the new Swiss Embassy in Beijing Compromise – Moudon (VD): a resident victim of a home jacking, the suspect on the run – Customs duties: Ypsomed transfers production outside Switzerland – After 20 years of bibes, Zurich will vote on the leafy blowers.