Want To Kiss Your Utility Company Goodbye? Plug-In Solar Could Be The Key. – CleanTechnica

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Balcony solar — a phenomenon that began in Germany — is beginning to make its presence felt in the US. It’s not quite ready for prime time yet, but like ice melting in the spring, the signs are there if you know where to look. Balcony solar, also known as plug-in solar, cannot be put to use in most US states. Utility companies want to know about — and regulate — everything connected to “their” grid.

There are good reasons for that. First and foremost, in the event of an outage, the repair crews need to know the wires they are working on are not “live.” Utility companies also have to be ultra careful that the voltage and frequency of the electricity they supply is within strict limits at all times. There are a lot of things connected to the grid that can be damaged if those parameters are breached and the utilities can be on the hook to repair or replace them if the electricity they supply is the cause of the damage.

That being said, the general attitude in the utility industry is, “It’s our electricity, dammit, and we will decide how you use and how much you pay for it.” Not to put too fine a point on it, but there are plenty of people who would love to give their utility company the heave ho and generate their own electrons if they could.

But that is not as easy as it sounds. To go fully off grid, people need to act and think like a utility company. They need to generate more electricity than the bare minimum they may need because sometimes everything gets switched on at once and the load spikes. They also have to provide for energy storage to keep the power flowing even when their solar panels or small residential wind turbines are not making any electricity.

Finally, there is the issue of cost. A full fledged rooftop solar system plus battery storage can cost tens of thousands of dollars, which means loans or leases that take years to amortize. Plus, if you move, you can’t take it with you, which means you have to start all over again. Apartment and condo dwellers are shut out of the rooftop solar opportunity completely.

Plug-in solar is an in-between solution. Neither fish nor fowl, as my old Irish grandmother would say. It is quite affordable, highly portable, and will provide enough electricity to power critical devices during times of grid outages. It also may lower your utility bill, at least a little — enough to pay for itself in a few years.

Plug-In Solar For All

According to KQED in San Francisco, the dream is for plug-in solar to be available off the shelf and set up by the customer, much the way furniture from IKEA is brought home from the store and assembled. But their are legitimate concerns about the products. Without safety measures or proper equipment, wires could overheat and cause a fire, or the systems could send power back to the grid when there is a power outage, endangering a line worker sent out to make repairs. The latest products include a so-called smart plug that shuts the system down if things get too hot or in the event of a grid emergency.

At the present time in the US, the individual components of these portable solar systems may be UL listed, but the systems themselves are not. UL has said it is working to address that issue. Today, the small solar power systems are illegal to use in most US states.

Raymond Ward, a Republican member of the Utah legislature heard about the balcony solar phenomenon in Germany and thought “Why don’t we have this here?” So he crafted a bill specifically authorizing it. The bill sailed through the Utah legislature with bipartisan support and was signed by the state’s governor earlier this year.

“I’m interested in anything that helps move towards more abundant energy. Anything that moves towards more clean power, with how that relates to the climate, is important to me,” Ward told KQED. His bill allows people to plug in small solar arrays without a permit or utility fee, so long as they comply with the national electric code and third party product safety standards. Products with certified components are already on the market. “It has turned out to be pretty important, right? A lot of people were watching,” Ward said.

Plug-In Solar In California

In California, plug-in solar does not fit easily into layers of national, state, and local electric code and operates in a regulatory gray area. If nothing else, utilities want customers to register their plug-in solar systems the way they would if they were rooftop system. “There are these big gaps where it’s certainly not that you can’t do this, but it’s also not clear that you can absolutely do this,” without registering the system, said Kevin Chou, a co-founder of Bright Saver, a Bay Area company that specializes in plug-in solar. To stay within California rules and avoid filling out an interconnection agreement with utilities, Bright Saver’s technology prevents excess power from feeding back into the grid.

PG&E representatives told KQED that registration costs roughly $100 to $800 and shouldn’t take much time at all — an hour if you have all your documents ready, with a standard approval time of three days. Spokesperson Paul Doherty said the utility “supports new technology to make interconnecting to the utility grid as easy as possible,” but added that “it is essential” for customers to apply for an interconnection agreement, citing safety and reliability.

“They tell you you should, but they do not provide a practical means for it,” said Rupert Mayer, another Bright Saver co-founder. “That is legitimate for the power company to want to know. But if you require someone who plugs in a single solar panel to go through the whole very bureaucratic interconnection process that they would need to go with rooftop solar, you basically make it prohibitive and put up an unnecessary hurdle.” As his organization has grown more aware of PG&E’s interpretation of state rules, Mayer said Bright Saver has paused installations and is focused on education instead.

Solar Love From Germany

Christian Ofenheusle is one of the leaders of Germany’s plug-in solar movement. He told KQED that when he began in 2017, he struggled with many of the problems facing plug-in solar in the US today. Now there are one million documented and several million undocumented systems in Germany, he said. Combined, they generate about the same amount of electricity as a small power plant — one the utility companies did hot have to pay to construct.

“Balcony solar is a small, small piece” of overall demand, cautioned Dan Kammen, an energy professor at UC Berkeley. Still he said plug-in solar matters, because “every bit helps.” But there is another aspect to this whole plug-in solar idea. Solar panels on balconies are highly visible, which makes them a talking point.

“A lot of what we do is not just signaling to others, but it’s signaling to ourselves,” he said. And it’s a way to take tangible action. “The more you learn about solar panels for your home purchases, the more that you can translate that into the business world. And that education is invaluable.”

What plug-in solar is really all about is people taking control of their own electrical supply, which could lead to a material shift in how people think about solar. The first time people saw an automobile, many were afraid of it. They didn’t know what it was, what it could do, or why it would have far reaching political and social consequences.

Plug-in solar is a lot like that — a new idea that is still in its infancy, but has the potential to reform how people and utility companies work together. Maybe the answer to forest fires sparked by errant utility wires in remote areas is not more transmission lines but more local solar installations. Maybe people will discover they like being in control of their energy generation and usage and want more independence.

In the 50s, every telephone customer got one phone free. Additional phones cost more money. My father was in the Signal Corps in WWII and liked to install phones throughout the house. When he saw a telephone company truck in the neighborhood, he would rush to disconnect those extra phone lines so Ma Bell couldn’t charge him for them. Today, the cell phone has obliterated the local phone companies, smashed long distance charges, and allowed us to talk to relatives in other countries for free.

Is plug-in solar the new cell phone? Probably not, but it is a crack in the facade of the standard utility/customer model. The truth may or may not set us free put dominion over our electrical power very well could.