Man I just typed "Electric Viking" and top result was him and a shady guy with funny ears and a cap. You are seen as a kind of "neutral" when it comes to EVs, you dont drive a tesla and you dont usually pump any stocks. But I dont get why would you taint your image like that. What is his "expertise"? what credibility does the guy have that earned your trust and spot on your show? I am geniunly curious.
I know the feeling . Here in California our base rate is 40c per Kwh and over 50 peak. My bill used to be $800 to $1500 depending on time of year. Last month I paid $11 total, the month before was $3. This includes about 2,000 miles ev charging per month. Solar was one of the best decisions I've made.
@@filippoleombruno8624 Other than Hawaii, California has pretty much always had the highest rates in the US. It's a funny thing that Texas has more than double the renewable energy as California but their average rate is just 14 cents.
Good video Sam. Australia is racing towards 25 GW in rooftop solar, leading the world with 1,359 watts per person! Netherlands 2nd with 1,299 watts, Germany 3rd at 996 watts, Belgium 4th with 846 watts. Households adding batteries at record rates. I was shocked on my recent trip in Canada how few houses had rooftop solar there.
I know I live here in Canada and its kinda ridiculous that people aren’t doing it more. You do get these conservative clowns that are just as bad as in America, but not nearly as many. Just recently bought a plug in Hybrid and trying to show as many people, family etc that electric is better. Hopefully Solar starts Snowballing here. We’re doing good with EVs on the serious rise though thankfully
One aspect isn’t addressed: reliability. Huge plants are SPOFs. If they go down, many thousands are inflicted. With distributed power generation, any outage won’t cause disruption.
Thanks Sam for providing this excellent summary promoting solar energy. Long time believer and installe solar PV to our home (13.2 kWh) in 2012, and two Powerwall-2 batteri3s installed in 2018. Our solar system was paid off by 2019 and we operate as a microgrid ~8 months of the year in Edmonds, WA (USA). Solar is a no brainer and works to power our all electric home and charge our two EVs, while exporting excess solar energy back to grid through Net metering.
The advantage that base power supply Used to offer was that it was cheap. Coal was cheap for a long time, and nukes were not crazy expensive. Now coal-fired electricity is more expensive than the other sources and nuclear is crazy expensive. On top of that, neither coal nor nukes are dispatchable on the time basis that provides any value to a utility matching varying supply with loads that have always varied. Base supply is NOT needed to keep the lights on at night. ANY cheap source of electricity that runs at night will do the job.
Any home owner can put their electric water heater on a line voltage timer. A 4,500 Watt element draws nearly 20 amps at 240 VAC so one would want to get a good one, but they are available.
Solar doesn’t work in uk/Northern Europe in winter without massive excess capacity, which puts levelised costs up. There is naturally more wind in winter and less in summer. A balance between both forms of generation and storage will develop in this region. Wind power is necessary and the levelised cost is very low.
But profits are also revolutionary… Compare 6 Tesla powerwalls, with a Tesla M3 long range… (It will vary for countries), but except for the software, one better buy a “home battery with wheels”
Gary does solar is a great YT channel and he predixts the feedvin tarrifs will go as more and more countries exoerience the Duck curve. 0 to negative cost during the day.
Ha ha.. I just clicked onto this channel to see how many “game changing” discoveries and “revolutionary new studies” Sam has announced over the past 24 hours and one of the two sponsored advertisements that popped up at the start of the video was for Ampol (Australian fuel company) and the other was for the Toyota diesel Land Cruiser. Hilarious 😅
Yeah, content creators have no control over the ads displayed. It's not just this channel, any channel that discuss EV's or renewable energy seem to have a lot of ads from fossil fuel companies and vehicle manufacturers. They seem to be doubling down on marketing lately.
@@Ryan-ff2db And on the other side of the coin I’ve seen a lot of EV promotional ads pop up on a car channel, Skid factory, Mighty Car Mods, etc. So they all do it I suppose.
Only two of us and still have average bill of $230 to $250 a month. The only way a solar system will help is having a battery and a lot of Aussies cannot afford.
Ours was 300 over winter with 5 people & an EV/300ks/week. Spring to autumn bills are normally around 80 - 120. No battery yet. All 3 x HWS (heat pumps), dishwashers car are used & charged during middle of the day. Amber Electric is the retailer
@@markthomasson5077 solar and wind actually makes ALL electricity more expensive.! Every country that has significant % of wind and solar in their generation, have seen huge increases in electricity costs. Levelised cost does not reflect the FULL cost of electricity supply. You need the FULL SYSTEM SUPPLY COST which includes the costs of all the extra interconnectors, storage, replacement ( short life cycle) , back up power, and FcAS, costs. When those are included, wind and solar show exceptionally high cost per MWh compared even to Nuclear.
LCOE as a measure does not take into account the cost of backup, grid balance and curtailment. Why is it that countries with high level of intermittent power supplies have the highest electricity cost. You would make electric viking a real valuable channel if you dig deeper into this.
"Why is it that countries with high level of intermittent power supplies have the highest electricity cost" - The answer to this question readily available online. In Australia it keep getting recycled by renewable energy contrarians and has been done over and over and over. In Australia it has been explained repeatedly by energy sector representatives, such as AEMO, AEC, ARENA, CSIRO and the various regional electricity network operators. So one more time in laymans summary........... The SYSTEMIC transition to a complete and mature renewable energy system is in it's infancy. It is referred to as a disruption that will take many years, not a simple change over. While the transition is in progress traditional forms of energy and generation obviously need to temporarily "hold the fort" so to speak. That costs more, while you have to retain the traditional system running along side the new system and all the complexities that brings with it. But there is no magical switch to flick and bingo we are all in renewable energy transition utopia in an instance. So what were you expecting? There is nothing unexpected about the state of play. Maybe if all the mischievous naysayers piped down, got out of the way and let the people with the know how and expertise progress the transition, so the can get on with the job unhindered and at greater pace, electricity prices would be that much closer to coming down. But no, so many people seem to think they are experts in all things energy, while being critical of things that are entirely outside their sphere.
This is simply not true. Here in America (excluding California because California regulation is absurd), the states with the highest percentage of renewable energy on their grid are also the typically cheapest. South Dakota, Idaho, Texas, Washington state, Oklahoma, Kansas, Wyoming etc.. Also interesting, most of those states are free market Republican held states and they are building out renewables 3 times faster than blue states.
@@Ryan-ff2db Thanks for the heads up from your country. It has also been interesting here in Australia, because we have also had a mix of political flavours across states driving the transition to renewable energy. It can only be a good thing. If politicians are willing to put ideology aside and make decisions based on merit, then they earn our support, whatever political flavour they adhere to.
@@BrentonSmythesfieldsaye Well, generally Republicans are the Big Oil party but red states(republican) are also more free market, making investment in renewables cheaper and faster. The big red state of Texas has over twice the renewables as California but California rates are over 3 times higher than Texas. South Dakota has almost 80 percent of it's power from renewables and again over 3 times cheaper than California. So cheap renewables is indeed possible, if you keep the politicians out of the way.
@@Ryan-ff2db fact check:- Texas is still 70% Gas, coal and Nuclear generation…and a much smaller consumption than Ca. S Dakota is a tiny generator (2.0 GW average) with a high proportion (30%) of Hydro . EVERY State or country that has introduced wind and solar into their supply have seen electricty price increase.
Not much point talking about solar costs without talking about storage. The real game changer will be when home battery prices plummet. For some reason this hasn't happened yet even though we're told battery prices keep falling.
There is more solar power available in summer than winter. If enough solar panels are installed to cover demand in winter, there will be an excess in summer. Rather than let this go to waste, this could be used to make e-fuels to power existing and new ICE cars. I wouldn't write off synthetic petrol just yet.
Cost is one thing and import tariff is something else. You need to have some form of correlation. The cost can be down to 100 usd but by buying from other companies outside you willl pay 10000 usd at least
But why is the LCOE relevant? It's the total cost that matters. You're looking at the wrong number. Even if wind and solar are the cheapest to 'add' to the grid, as the CSIRO says, wind loses to wind, solar loses to solar. Adding wind and solar makes the rest of the grid less efficient and thereby driving up costs of the grid as a whole. This is why grids with lots of wind and solar have high electricity bills. South Australia verses the other states. California verses the other states. Germany and Ireland verses the other EU. There are no exceptions. It's like comparing commodities, the levelised cost of commodities (LOCC); iron, cotton or opium. The LOCC would be good for comparing iron and cotton, but not good for opium because people will get addicted to opium then become unproductive and the market shrinks. But even as the market shrinks, all the way up to economic collapse, societal collapse and into an opium war, the LOCC would still say that opium has the largest profits. Wind and solar are the opium of the energy sector.
With the pace of progress things are going to be very different in a decade, solar and batteries will be as common in a home as a fridge is now... Compared to anything else solar and batteries look like magic and still feels like it after 5 years with my system. Just stick a few panels on the roof, connect a few cables to the battery and shazam, free power that falls out of the sky for 20+ maintenece free years. I imagine legacy energy are very worried by now, didums :)
Hey Sam. That's amazing mate those stats and in particular, the battery wholesale price got my attention. Surprised me because researching online the cost of batteries recently still showed nothing comparable to those wholesales costs. Would be interested to know your thoughts on this (in Oz mate). I understand you need an inverter and of cause the installation but it's still working out to me a lot more than a 1k per kwh. I think once they are half that cost, in Australia we will see take start to dramatically increase as a guess. Look at Solar. Keep up the good work buddy. Hope your wife is doing ok and your boys are having fun being boys.
Solar, wind and EVs don’t work in a natural disaster. Just watch the security footage of EVs exploding in four or so inches of water from hurricane Helene. You don’t see gas cars doing that. And remember that lady politician Nora something in Australia last year, she brought up valid points and questions about the failures of EVs during any sort of emergency situations and why it’s always better to have gas and diesel cars on hand for evacuation plans. She used the bush fires of 2016 as an example. I can also use the wild fires in Alberta and Nova Scotia as examples of why you do not want to be in an EV when you are trying to evacuate your family. And do you really think the emergency services would use EVs for themselves during those times? No they would not.
great channel @eletricviking keep the videos coming :) I would love to know how does the cost of solar sytems in Australia compare to the UK? Last year we paid £8000gpd (about $15500aud) for a 5kwh system (12 planels), a 5kwh inverter and a 5.2kwh battery
Notice how everything is coming down in price, except the most important part which hurts every consumer's pocket is the retail price which goes up every year..Someone is making a lot of money or solar is not cracked up to what it is...Something certainly does not gel here....
That's a way too long timespan yiu are looking at. Let's say 2018 to now: 50%. This means from 2010 to 2018 it reduced by 40%. Since they now have way more experience and automate way more prices will continue to drop. It's mainly just silicon. So the PV panels themselves will be cheap af.
Solar, wind, batteries ( incl pumped hydro) & hydro r the way ahead..not gas, coal and, as for nuclear...for Australia they have to be kidding! Look to UK Hinkley point C to see why.
True, the cost of solar panels and inverters have dropped considerably. In THAT aspect Tony Seba was correct. However, he never contemplated about the devious way power companies operate. During peak moments you have to PAY when delivering power back to the grid, only because the capacity of their network cannot cope (decades of mismanagement). The only solution is home storage, but those batteries are disgustingly overpriced. Also, big solar farms and wind turbines are switched off 10% of the time, because of “over supply”, though traditional power plants remained working…🧐
Battery costs went down even twice as fast as PV panel costs. A 10kWh LFP battery today costs less than 6k€ in Europe and enables a typical family house to run exclusively on solar power day and night for 70% of the year.
@@ikarustigger A 10ish battery should costs way less than €6k. Take a Tesla M3LR. Say it costs about €50k with a 75 kWh battery. seven powerwalls are over €77000. Thus a home-battery with wheels is cheaper…
Lol. Bits of plastic flying off windmills?? 😅So this is the next renewable energy scare? How far down your list of bogus scares to feed to the public are you? And have you thought about the health effects of particulate matter in air pollution?
1 kWh of electricity will cost 16.4 cents average in USA while 1 kWh of equivalent gas is about 8 cents so roughly electric should cost double the gas why it is doesn't or does depends all on the nitty grittys but problem with gas vehicles is extremely large maintenance cost and headache of getting gas while a large part of electricity comes from solar
@@Fomites sure combustion is never great for the lungs and it's tiny air sacs called alveoli which get choked irreversibly by smoke particles as a medical doctor I can definitely say that but as a person with a degree in mechanical engineering I would also say that efficiency of conversion of solar to electric can also come into big play as the Carnot efficiency (thermal efficiency of IC engine) which is about 30% max. The whole problem is not so cut and dry as of now I have all electric cars and I charge them using solar panels most of time but what keeps me awake at night is those precious materials the blood diamonds in the batteries thats mined in Congo by little kids . I don't have any children of mine but I sure do care about children of other people far away in Africa for example there is no one for those people except us. BLUF I would say weigh your karma carefully and consider the full picture.
Great article, but baseload, reliable generation is not BS. What happens on overcast days if all nuclear plants have been closed and there is insufficient hydro? Rolling blackouts. Yes, storage is getting cheaper, but not discussed is the true total cost /Kwh AC. There are significant losses in the conversion process both ways. If you're going from DC panels directly to DC battery storage, a large part of that loss is mitigated. But you still have the loss converting to AC from DC or AC to DC for storage, then the loss converting back to AC. Factor in maintenance and other unique costs, and what is the true cost/Kwh AC? Most solar generation is calculated in DC Kwhs, not AC. 1 Kwh DC does not equal 1 Kwh AC. Salesmen never discuss efficiency losses or actual real-world AC production of your system only the theoritical maximum panel production under perfect conditions. We will always need something to pick up the load until grid sized battery storage is large enough to cover baseload. Being a Yank, most of your EV news about Chinese vehicles costs etc are just pipe dreams in the States. But tariffs come and go depending on who controls Congress & the White House. I enjoy the channel!!
DC to AC inversion is actually a very mature technology - losses in even very affordable consumer inverter units now are very small, typically around or less than 2-3%, across effectively the entire operating range.
88% of the electricity generated on the grid comes from utilities, leaving 12% from residential. In the utility power generation business, we, say, delivered kWh, deliver power. This takes into account all inefficiencies, such as losses and power factors.
@Carl_in_AZ I think you misunderstood my comment. It was not about utility supplied power, it was about the inherent losses from solar panels and their DC-AC and back conversion process for storage/use. There are losses in these systems. The advertised salespitch production is not usually how much AC power is expected to be delivered at the end of this loss chain.
@tomfahey2823 And what about the AC to DC conversion to put it in your powerwall etc battery system or the inbersion required to get it out back to AC. These don't use micro-inverters like the panels. All these losses add up. At 3% ( amazing) that is a 9% loss from panel to battery to AC.
The AEMO will soon start charging rooftop solar owners to put power into the grid. Why is the AEMO doing this ? That is part of the AEMO strategy in the ISP. The ISP says that the grid will need the equivalent of 9 more Snowy 2.0s before the last coal fired power station closes. This is not going to happen, so the AEMO needs another source of power storage. Charging people to put power into the grid fits in well with the business models of the renewable farms and the strategic plans of both the AEMO and the AEMC. During the day, when there is so much solar around, renewable farms can't compete with rooftop solar. It would appear that the AEMC is now doing to rooftop solar what he has done to coal fired power (make it uneconomic for them to compete). This is likely to force rooftop solar owners to buy home batteries, which now fits in nicely with the AEMO's ISP strategy. If it doesn't pay to put your excess power into the NEM, you might as well store it for your own use. The AEMO needs your home batteries and your EV (sources of cheap stored power) to back up the grid between 4pm and 8pm. It is listed in the ISP as CER (Consumer Energy Resources) but not costed in the ISP as the AEMO says that buying batteries and EVs is a personal choice. However, the ISP won't work if there are not enough CERs to use in peak usage times.
I have asked this before on this channel. Why is my electric bill the highest in my life. Especially as i live in Jamestown South Australia where i am surrounded by Windmills and has the firs Australia large Tesla Battery. The State of South Australia has almost 100% renewables yet my electric bill has tripped in the past five years. Someone is BULLSHITTING HERE. Whereis this Tony Siba Disruption price of power??? For 100% renewables many of us here in South Australia are being gouged by the Australian Electricity suppliers. I have rooftop Solar and i am surrounded by windmills. COST ISN’T COMING DOWN IT HAS TRIPLED AND STILL GOING UP. I have listened to many of this channels claims about Solar and EV’s which ignore the REAL TRUTH on the Ground regarding both. How can EV’s be economical when Electricity is so expensive. South Australia was the first of the Australian states to go renewable yet Electricity prices are eye watering in their steady increase. I’ve written my complaint to this site twice before and have been ignored. BULLSHIT WALKS WHILE MONEY TALKS.
It’s the same here in the uk, or worse. It’s rip off guarantees given to the power industry, particularly nuclear. Eventually it will change but until then it’s best to generate your own if you can
@@jsanders100 my point is the rap is a lie and doesn’t reflect the true reality especially here in Australia. We already have near 100% renewables but electricity is three times higher than three years ago and much more than before Renewables. If it is cheaper energy someone is making a killing.
Solar and storage combined have to fall at least another 50% to be competitive and to shut down the already working gas power plants. I saw a documentary which explained it thoroughly. If I find it gonna add it later!
You saw a documentary from 10 years ago. Its already cheaper to replace existing gas assets with solar and batteries today, than it is to merely continue to buy fuel for them for 10 years. Let alone the operate costs of gas plants and their maintenance.
Sam has anyone got research showing grid requirements under a fully Ai world 5 to 10 years out V Solar generation ?? I am in Seba camp of Solar and batteries will solve most going forward but I haven't seen any work that includes a very hungry Ai Data world
Flat TVs are almost impossible to make and require a huge investment. And yet they are dirt cheap. Why was it cheaper to cover my roof with 4k TVs than to put solar on it? The cost of solar had to come down because the price was just ridiculous for no reason, it's about time they came down but they still cost WAY more than they should. Same thing is true of batteries and EVs, the cost must and will come down even with industry and governments trying to keep the price high with BS policy.
When flat screen TVs first came on the market, they were horrendously expensive, but Wright's Law helped them get progressively cheaper over time. The same has happened for solar panels, batteries, EVs, computers, mobile/cell phone, smart phones and many other products. But Wright's Law does not state that the rate at which one thing will get cheaper will be the same as the rate that something else will get cheaper. As such, you are engaging in an apples and oranges comparison when asking, "Why was it cheaper to cover my roof with 4k TVs than to put solar on it?" Aside from that, your question incorrectly assumes that it would be cheaper to cover your roof with flat screen TVs that with solar. At least where I live (UK), the cost per square meter of a solar panel is cheaper than the cost per square meter of a flat screen TV, so the materials cost to cover your roof will be cheaper for solar panels. Then, just like you need to pay for fixing brackets and labour to install solar panels on your roof, you would also need to pay for fixing brackets and labour to install flat screen TVs on your roof. When you write, "The cost of solar had to come down because the price was just ridiculous for no reason", you are engaging in a logical fallacy that just because you cannot think of a reason for [such-and-such], there isn't a reason for [such-and-such]. It is much more likely that you cannot think of a reason for [such-and-such] due to your ignorance of the topic.
More visible data and graphs that we can check out while you are talking would greatly improve information retention. The b roll that you present is essentially meaningless.
The real issue is that solar is cheaper than nuclear until you have to add in the cost of loads of new distribution lines that have to be built, then it is more expensive than nuclear. You are very biased towards solar without factoring in all the costs. That is why most Australians power bills keep going up
That is just repeating the Coalition's disinformation. Nuclear is still the most expensive electricity globally whichever way you look at it. I am pro-nuclear but it is just too costly. And do you really believe "That is why most Australians power bills keep going up"? As simple as that? Why don't you offer your huge expertise to energy handlers like AEMO, AEMC, AER, ESB? You don't know what you are talking about.
What people conveniently forget, are the times needed for commissioning and decommissioning a nuclear power plant. The EU has to cough up billions for clearing up an old Hungarian nuclear plant. Installing or removing an PV-farm is faster and cheaper…
The best solar company in Australia just installed my new solar system.
Check them out here: www.resinc.com.au/electricviking
Man I just typed "Electric Viking" and top result was him and a shady guy with funny ears and a cap. You are seen as a kind of "neutral" when it comes to EVs, you dont drive a tesla and you dont usually pump any stocks. But I dont get why would you taint your image like that. What is his "expertise"? what credibility does the guy have that earned your trust and spot on your show? I am geniunly curious.
Just got my power bill 37c for the month, which also includes 600km of driving.
I know the feeling . Here in California our base rate is 40c per Kwh and over 50 peak. My bill used to be $800 to $1500 depending on time of year. Last month I paid $11 total, the month before was $3. This includes about 2,000 miles ev charging per month. Solar was one of the best decisions I've made.
@@Ryan-ff2db it's curious here in South Australia the price is nearly the same
@@filippoleombruno8624 Other than Hawaii, California has pretty much always had the highest rates in the US. It's a funny thing that Texas has more than double the renewable energy as California but their average rate is just 14 cents.
Good video Sam. Australia is racing towards 25 GW in rooftop solar, leading the world with 1,359 watts per person! Netherlands 2nd with 1,299 watts, Germany 3rd at 996 watts, Belgium 4th with 846 watts. Households adding batteries at record rates. I was shocked on my recent trip in Canada how few houses had rooftop solar there.
Canada is way farther from the equator and only gets about 1% of its electricity from solar.
I know I live here in Canada and its kinda ridiculous that people aren’t doing it more. You do get these conservative clowns that are just as bad as in America, but not nearly as many. Just recently bought a plug in Hybrid and trying to show as many people, family etc that electric is better.
Hopefully Solar starts Snowballing here. We’re doing good with EVs on the serious rise though thankfully
@@BlindedByLogic It has nothing to do with geography and everything with lack of policy. Germany, Netherlands etc are rocking solar.
Canada has a 300% import tariff on Solar.....that is why.
@@BlindedByLogic Im in Saskatchewan Canada. Ive had solar for five years. Anyone who tells you solar doesn't work in Canada? Is full of poutine....
One aspect isn’t addressed: reliability.
Huge plants are SPOFs. If they go down, many thousands are inflicted.
With distributed power generation, any outage won’t cause disruption.
Good news of good things to come! Love the new outro, too 😁
Thanks Sam for providing this excellent summary promoting solar energy. Long time believer and installe solar PV to our home (13.2 kWh) in 2012, and two Powerwall-2 batteri3s installed in 2018. Our solar system was paid off by 2019 and we operate as a microgrid ~8 months of the year in Edmonds, WA (USA). Solar is a no brainer and works to power our all electric home and charge our two EVs, while exporting excess solar energy back to grid through Net metering.
The advantage that base power supply Used to offer was that it was cheap. Coal was cheap for a long time, and nukes were not crazy expensive. Now coal-fired electricity is more expensive than the other sources and nuclear is crazy expensive. On top of that, neither coal nor nukes are dispatchable on the time basis that provides any value to a utility matching varying supply with loads that have always varied. Base supply is NOT needed to keep the lights on at night. ANY cheap source of electricity that runs at night will do the job.
What Australia's grid now needs is lots of EV charging during the middle of the day!
To soak up all the spare & wasted solar.
They could also look at powering electric hot water systems during the day rather than at night.
Any home owner can put their electric water heater on a line voltage timer. A 4,500 Watt element draws nearly 20 amps at 240 VAC so one would want to get a good one, but they are available.
Solar doesn’t work in uk/Northern Europe in winter without massive excess capacity, which puts levelised costs up. There is naturally more wind in winter and less in summer.
A balance between both forms of generation and storage will develop in this region. Wind power is necessary and the levelised cost is very low.
Yeah, that's what has been happening, we all just need more batteries, solar is just so much easier and cheaper to build out.
Wind is much better for thise region as quite windy all year round
There has been a revolution in battery technology as well which has made a solar solution much more accessible today than previously.
But profits are also revolutionary…
Compare 6 Tesla powerwalls, with a Tesla M3 long range…
(It will vary for countries), but except for the software, one better buy a “home battery with wheels”
Gary does solar is a great YT channel and he predixts the feedvin tarrifs will go as more and more countries exoerience the Duck curve. 0 to negative cost during the day.
Ha ha.. I just clicked onto this channel to see how many “game changing” discoveries and “revolutionary new studies” Sam has announced over the past 24 hours and one of the two sponsored advertisements that popped up at the start of the video was for Ampol (Australian fuel company) and the other was for the Toyota diesel Land Cruiser. Hilarious 😅
Yeah, content creators have no control over the ads displayed. It's not just this channel, any channel that discuss EV's or renewable energy seem to have a lot of ads from fossil fuel companies and vehicle manufacturers. They seem to be doubling down on marketing lately.
@@Ryan-ff2db And on the other side of the coin I’ve seen a lot of EV promotional ads pop up on a car channel, Skid factory, Mighty Car Mods, etc. So they all do it I suppose.
We buy containers of solar panels from China. Price used to be 26 cents per watt during the pandemic. Now price is 8 cents
And you now sell at 50 cents 😅
Only two of us and still have average bill of $230 to $250 a month. The only way a solar system will help is having a battery and a lot of Aussies cannot afford.
Ours was 300 over winter with 5 people & an EV/300ks/week.
Spring to autumn bills are normally around 80 - 120.
No battery yet.
All 3 x HWS (heat pumps), dishwashers car are used & charged during middle of the day.
Amber Electric is the retailer
Solar actually makes wind more expensive, in northern climates
@@markthomasson5077 solar and wind actually makes ALL electricity more expensive.!
Every country that has significant % of wind and solar in their generation, have seen huge increases in electricity costs.
Levelised cost does not reflect the FULL cost of electricity supply.
You need the FULL SYSTEM SUPPLY COST which includes the costs of all the extra interconnectors, storage, replacement ( short life cycle) , back up power, and FcAS, costs.
When those are included, wind and solar show exceptionally high cost per MWh compared even to Nuclear.
Thanks!
Welcome!
LCOE as a measure does not take into account the cost of backup, grid balance and curtailment. Why is it that countries with high level of intermittent power supplies have the highest electricity cost. You would make electric viking a real valuable channel if you dig deeper into this.
"Why is it that countries with high level of intermittent power supplies have the highest electricity cost" - The answer to this question readily available online. In Australia it keep getting recycled by renewable energy contrarians and has been done over and over and over. In Australia it has been explained repeatedly by energy sector representatives, such as AEMO, AEC, ARENA, CSIRO and the various regional electricity network operators.
So one more time in laymans summary...........
The SYSTEMIC transition to a complete and mature renewable energy system is in it's infancy. It is referred to as a disruption that will take many years, not a simple change over. While the transition is in progress traditional forms of energy and generation obviously need to temporarily "hold the fort" so to speak. That costs more, while you have to retain the traditional system running along side the new system and all the complexities that brings with it. But there is no magical switch to flick and bingo we are all in renewable energy transition utopia in an instance. So what were you expecting? There is nothing unexpected about the state of play.
Maybe if all the mischievous naysayers piped down, got out of the way and let the people with the know how and expertise progress the transition, so the can get on with the job unhindered and at greater pace, electricity prices would be that much closer to coming down. But no, so many people seem to think they are experts in all things energy, while being critical of things that are entirely outside their sphere.
This is simply not true. Here in America (excluding California because California regulation is absurd), the states with the highest percentage of renewable energy on their grid are also the typically cheapest. South Dakota, Idaho, Texas, Washington state, Oklahoma, Kansas, Wyoming etc.. Also interesting, most of those states are free market Republican held states and they are building out renewables 3 times faster than blue states.
@@Ryan-ff2db Thanks for the heads up from your country. It has also been interesting here in Australia, because we have also had a mix of political flavours across states driving the transition to renewable energy.
It can only be a good thing. If politicians are willing to put ideology aside and make decisions based on merit, then they earn our support, whatever political flavour they adhere to.
@@BrentonSmythesfieldsaye Well, generally Republicans are the Big Oil party but red states(republican) are also more free market, making investment in renewables cheaper and faster. The big red state of Texas has over twice the renewables as California but California rates are over 3 times higher than Texas. South Dakota has almost 80 percent of it's power from renewables and again over 3 times cheaper than California. So cheap renewables is indeed possible, if you keep the politicians out of the way.
@@Ryan-ff2db fact check:-
Texas is still 70% Gas, coal and Nuclear generation…and a much smaller consumption than Ca.
S Dakota is a tiny generator (2.0 GW average) with a high proportion (30%) of Hydro .
EVERY State or country that has introduced wind and solar into their supply have seen electricty price increase.
I'd really like to see some information on public car charging infrastructure here in Australia
Not much point talking about solar costs without talking about storage. The real game changer will be when home battery prices plummet. For some reason this hasn't happened yet even though we're told battery prices keep falling.
There is more solar power available in summer than winter. If enough solar panels are installed to cover demand in winter, there will be an excess in summer. Rather than let this go to waste, this could be used to make e-fuels to power existing and new ICE cars. I wouldn't write off synthetic petrol just yet.
Cost is one thing and import tariff is something else. You need to have some form of correlation. The cost can be down to 100 usd but by buying from other companies outside you willl pay 10000 usd at least
Hi Sam. Anxiously waiting for your update of the Xpeng G6 following your recent journey.
Me too 🙂
But why is the LCOE relevant? It's the total cost that matters. You're looking at the wrong number. Even if wind and solar are the cheapest to 'add' to the grid, as the CSIRO says, wind loses to wind, solar loses to solar. Adding wind and solar makes the rest of the grid less efficient and thereby driving up costs of the grid as a whole. This is why grids with lots of wind and solar have high electricity bills. South Australia verses the other states. California verses the other states. Germany and Ireland verses the other EU. There are no exceptions.
It's like comparing commodities, the levelised cost of commodities (LOCC); iron, cotton or opium. The LOCC would be good for comparing iron and cotton, but not good for opium because people will get addicted to opium then become unproductive and the market shrinks. But even as the market shrinks, all the way up to economic collapse, societal collapse and into an opium war, the LOCC would still say that opium has the largest profits. Wind and solar are the opium of the energy sector.
With the pace of progress things are going to be very different in a decade, solar and batteries will be as common in a home as a fridge is now... Compared to anything else solar and batteries look like magic and still feels like it after 5 years with my system. Just stick a few panels on the roof, connect a few cables to the battery and shazam, free power that falls out of the sky for 20+ maintenece free years. I imagine legacy energy are very worried by now, didums :)
Hey Sam. That's amazing mate those stats and in particular, the battery wholesale price got my attention. Surprised me because researching online the cost of batteries recently still showed nothing comparable to those wholesales costs. Would be interested to know your thoughts on this (in Oz mate). I understand you need an inverter and of cause the installation but it's still working out to me a lot more than a 1k per kwh. I think once they are half that cost, in Australia we will see take start to dramatically increase as a guess. Look at Solar. Keep up the good work buddy. Hope your wife is doing ok and your boys are having fun being boys.
10 years from now there won't be any open land anywhere and installers of residential roof solar will still be taking an unfair profit.
Solar, wind and EVs don’t work in a natural disaster. Just watch the security footage of EVs exploding in four or so inches of water from hurricane Helene. You don’t see gas cars doing that. And remember that lady politician Nora something in Australia last year, she brought up valid points and questions about the failures of EVs during any sort of emergency situations and why it’s always better to have gas and diesel cars on hand for evacuation plans.
She used the bush fires of 2016 as an example. I can also use the wild fires in Alberta and Nova Scotia as examples of why you do not want to be in an EV when you are trying to evacuate your family.
And do you really think the emergency services would use EVs for themselves during those times? No they would not.
great channel @eletricviking keep the videos coming :)
I would love to know how does the cost of solar sytems in Australia compare to the UK? Last year we paid £8000gpd (about $15500aud) for a 5kwh system (12 planels), a 5kwh inverter and a 5.2kwh battery
Those prices are cheaper than Australia by approximately 20 percent.
❤❤❤
Notice how everything is coming down in price, except the most important part which hurts every consumer's pocket is the retail price which goes up every year..Someone is making a lot of money or solar is not cracked up to what it is...Something certainly does not gel here....
That's a way too long timespan yiu are looking at.
Let's say 2018 to now: 50%. This means from 2010 to 2018 it reduced by 40%. Since they now have way more experience and automate way more prices will continue to drop. It's mainly just silicon. So the PV panels themselves will be cheap af.
Solar, wind, batteries ( incl pumped hydro) & hydro r the way ahead..not gas, coal and, as for nuclear...for Australia they have to be kidding! Look to UK Hinkley point C to see why.
True, the cost of solar panels and inverters have dropped considerably. In THAT aspect Tony Seba was correct.
However, he never contemplated about the devious way power companies operate.
During peak moments you have to PAY when delivering power back to the grid, only because the capacity of their network cannot cope (decades of mismanagement).
The only solution is home storage, but those batteries are disgustingly overpriced.
Also, big solar farms and wind turbines are switched off 10% of the time, because of “over supply”, though traditional power plants remained working…🧐
Battery costs went down even twice as fast as PV panel costs. A 10kWh LFP battery today costs less than 6k€ in Europe and enables a typical family house to run exclusively on solar power day and night for 70% of the year.
@@ikarustigger A 10ish battery should costs way less than €6k.
Take a Tesla M3LR. Say it costs about €50k with a 75 kWh battery.
seven powerwalls are over €77000.
Thus a home-battery with wheels is cheaper…
Incredible transformation?
Energy use has gone from 83% FF to 81%...in 2O years...🤣
Yes, but most of that change has been in the last 2 years, and it's not stopping.
What they said as well as energy consumption has gone up.
@@SA..................
Cringe
Farmers have been warned about safety as windmills are losing bits of plastic of them and can do serious injury
Please cite instance of death or injury from turbine debris from ANYWHERE in the world.
Lol. Bits of plastic flying off windmills?? 😅So this is the next renewable energy scare? How far down your list of bogus scares to feed to the public are you? And have you thought about the health effects of particulate matter in air pollution?
@@Fomites The little bits of plastic coming off the windmills at high speed are making that trump windmill sound that is then causing cancer.
It is 2000 in Sydney now. Evening consumption peak. For what price you can sell me your PV generated power?
1 kWh of electricity will cost 16.4 cents average in USA while 1 kWh of equivalent gas is about 8 cents so roughly electric should cost double the gas why it is doesn't or does depends all on the nitty grittys but problem with gas vehicles is extremely large maintenance cost and headache of getting gas while a large part of electricity comes from solar
And the gases we have to breathe.
@@Fomites sure combustion is never great for the lungs and it's tiny air sacs called alveoli which get choked irreversibly by smoke particles as a medical doctor I can definitely say that but as a person with a degree in mechanical engineering I would also say that efficiency of conversion of solar to electric can also come into big play as the Carnot efficiency (thermal efficiency of IC engine) which is about 30% max. The whole problem is not so cut and dry as of now I have all electric cars and I charge them using solar panels most of time but what keeps me awake at night is those precious materials the blood diamonds in the batteries thats mined in Congo by little kids . I don't have any children of mine but I sure do care about children of other people far away in Africa for example there is no one for those people except us. BLUF I would say weigh your karma carefully and consider the full picture.
Great article, but baseload, reliable generation is not BS. What happens on overcast days if all nuclear plants have been closed and there is insufficient hydro? Rolling blackouts. Yes, storage is getting cheaper, but not discussed is the true total cost /Kwh AC. There are significant losses in the conversion process both ways. If you're going from DC panels directly to DC battery storage, a large part of that loss is mitigated. But you still have the loss converting to AC from DC or AC to DC for storage, then the loss converting back to AC. Factor in maintenance and other unique costs, and what is the true cost/Kwh AC? Most solar generation is calculated in DC Kwhs, not AC. 1 Kwh DC does not equal 1 Kwh AC. Salesmen never discuss efficiency losses or actual real-world AC production of your system only the theoritical maximum panel production under perfect conditions. We will always need something to pick up the load until grid sized battery storage is large enough to cover baseload. Being a Yank, most of your EV news about Chinese vehicles costs etc are just pipe dreams in the States. But tariffs come and go depending on who controls Congress & the White House. I enjoy the channel!!
DC to AC inversion is actually a very mature technology - losses in even very affordable consumer inverter units now are very small, typically around or less than 2-3%, across effectively the entire operating range.
88% of the electricity generated on the grid comes from utilities, leaving 12% from residential. In the utility power generation business, we, say, delivered kWh, deliver power. This takes into account all inefficiencies, such as losses and power factors.
Sunlight isn’t needed for PV, just daylight will do (though the yield is lower). Even now, while raining, they still produce.
@Carl_in_AZ I think you misunderstood my comment. It was not about utility supplied power, it was about the inherent losses from solar panels and their DC-AC and back conversion process for storage/use. There are losses in these systems. The advertised salespitch production is not usually how much AC power is expected to be delivered at the end of this loss chain.
@tomfahey2823 And what about the AC to DC conversion to put it in your powerwall etc battery system or the inbersion required to get it out back to AC. These don't use micro-inverters like the panels. All these losses add up. At 3% ( amazing) that is a 9% loss from panel to battery to AC.
The AEMO will soon start charging rooftop solar owners to put power into the grid.
Why is the AEMO doing this ?
That is part of the AEMO strategy in the ISP. The ISP says that the grid will need the equivalent of 9 more Snowy 2.0s before the last coal fired power station closes. This is not going to happen, so the AEMO needs another source of power storage.
Charging people to put power into the grid fits in well with the business models of the renewable farms and the strategic plans of both the AEMO and the AEMC.
During the day, when there is so much solar around, renewable farms can't compete with rooftop solar.
It would appear that the AEMC is now doing to rooftop solar what he has done to coal fired power (make it uneconomic for them to compete). This is likely to force rooftop solar owners to buy home batteries, which now fits in nicely with the AEMO's ISP strategy. If it doesn't pay to put your excess power into the NEM, you might as well store it for your own use.
The AEMO needs your home batteries and your EV (sources of cheap stored power) to back up the grid between 4pm and 8pm. It is listed in the ISP as CER (Consumer Energy Resources) but not costed in the ISP as the AEMO says that buying batteries and EVs is a personal choice. However, the ISP won't work if there are not enough CERs to use in peak usage times.
We pay when getting power from them,
We pay when delivering power to them.
Clearly we’re getting screwed.
I have asked this before on this channel. Why is my electric bill the highest in my life. Especially as i live in Jamestown South Australia where i am surrounded by Windmills and has the firs Australia large Tesla Battery.
The State of South Australia has almost 100% renewables yet my electric bill has tripped in the past five years.
Someone is BULLSHITTING HERE. Whereis this Tony Siba Disruption price of power???
For 100% renewables many of us here in South Australia are being gouged by the Australian Electricity suppliers.
I have rooftop Solar and i am surrounded by windmills. COST ISN’T COMING DOWN IT HAS TRIPLED AND STILL GOING UP.
I have listened to many of this channels claims about Solar and EV’s
which ignore the REAL TRUTH on the Ground regarding both. How can EV’s be economical when Electricity is so expensive.
South Australia was the first of the Australian states to go renewable yet
Electricity prices are eye watering in their steady increase.
I’ve written my complaint to this site twice before and have been ignored.
BULLSHIT WALKS WHILE MONEY TALKS.
It’s the same here in the uk, or worse. It’s rip off guarantees given to the power industry, particularly nuclear. Eventually it will change but until then it’s best to generate your own if you can
So you are right and all the other easily-checked information on electricity prices is wrong? Whatever you say.
What is your point?
@@jsanders100 my point is the rap is a lie and doesn’t reflect the true reality especially here in Australia. We already have near 100% renewables but electricity is three times higher than three years ago and much more than before Renewables. If it is cheaper energy someone is making a killing.
Why?
The shareholders want an extra holiday…
I would like to now where to get the specs on the tesla model c @ $7000us. @ the moment there is nothing available. the same goes for the PI phone.
Solar and storage combined have to fall at least another 50% to be competitive and to shut down the already working gas power plants.
I saw a documentary which explained it thoroughly.
If I find it gonna add it later!
Do you remember its name?
Solar and storage: "Hold my beer"
You saw a documentary from 10 years ago. Its already cheaper to replace existing gas assets with solar and batteries today, than it is to merely continue to buy fuel for them for 10 years. Let alone the operate costs of gas plants and their maintenance.
@@oldbloke204 its low power used locally. You do not have to have more transmission, you just need to use it differently.
Too bad consumers are not see this reality.
Sam has anyone got research showing grid requirements under a fully Ai world 5 to 10 years out V Solar generation ??
I am in Seba camp of Solar and batteries will solve most going forward but I haven't seen any work that includes a very hungry Ai Data world
Solar Power costs 56% less than the cheapest Fossil Fuel before you include the added Health costs associated with Fossil Fuels. 🧐
BS
Thank you China and bye2 Exxon Mobil
Flat TVs are almost impossible to make and require a huge investment. And yet they are dirt cheap. Why was it cheaper to cover my roof with 4k TVs than to put solar on it? The cost of solar had to come down because the price was just ridiculous for no reason, it's about time they came down but they still cost WAY more than they should. Same thing is true of batteries and EVs, the cost must and will come down even with industry and governments trying to keep the price high with BS policy.
When flat screen TVs first came on the market, they were horrendously expensive, but Wright's Law helped them get progressively cheaper over time. The same has happened for solar panels, batteries, EVs, computers, mobile/cell phone, smart phones and many other products. But Wright's Law does not state that the rate at which one thing will get cheaper will be the same as the rate that something else will get cheaper. As such, you are engaging in an apples and oranges comparison when asking, "Why was it cheaper to cover my roof with 4k TVs than to put solar on it?" Aside from that, your question incorrectly assumes that it would be cheaper to cover your roof with flat screen TVs that with solar. At least where I live (UK), the cost per square meter of a solar panel is cheaper than the cost per square meter of a flat screen TV, so the materials cost to cover your roof will be cheaper for solar panels. Then, just like you need to pay for fixing brackets and labour to install solar panels on your roof, you would also need to pay for fixing brackets and labour to install flat screen TVs on your roof.
When you write, "The cost of solar had to come down because the price was just ridiculous for no reason", you are engaging in a logical fallacy that just because you cannot think of a reason for [such-and-such], there isn't a reason for [such-and-such]. It is much more likely that you cannot think of a reason for [such-and-such] due to your ignorance of the topic.
Zelená propaganda.
Click bait. Power bills increasing ever quarter.
And tell us what it is due to. You don't know.
Power companies must make up for their losses they make.
More visible data and graphs that we can check out while you are talking would greatly improve information retention. The b roll that you present is essentially meaningless.
what if you dont trade at all, but all is free. talk about money and laws and governments is shameful.
The real issue is that solar is cheaper than nuclear until you have to add in the cost of loads of new distribution lines that have to be built, then it is more expensive than nuclear. You are very biased towards solar without factoring in all the costs. That is why most Australians power bills keep going up
Are you factoring in full decommissioning costs of nuclear? No, you’re not
That is just repeating the Coalition's disinformation. Nuclear is still the most expensive electricity globally whichever way you look at it. I am pro-nuclear but it is just too costly. And do you really believe "That is why most Australians power bills keep going up"? As simple as that? Why don't you offer your huge expertise to energy handlers like AEMO, AEMC, AER, ESB? You don't know what you are talking about.
What people conveniently forget, are the times needed for commissioning and decommissioning a nuclear power plant.
The EU has to cough up billions for clearing up an old Hungarian nuclear plant.
Installing or removing an PV-farm is faster and cheaper…
10 years from now?… no way the way ai is changing everything even imagining 1 year from now is impossible.
More made up clickbait