Brilliant news!
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I look forward to the government ever making anything clear.
@Walrus What did your MP and Senedd member say when you complained to them about this?
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@Walrus What did your MP and Senedd member say when you complained to them about this?
Oh, come on. I don't have to make sense when I take cheap shots, do I?
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@Edent
For anyone reading this who thinks "you can't buy plugin solar panels from Lidl!" here's a link to Lidl Germany where that is definitely a thing:
Stromerzeuger in versch. Größen & Leistung | Lidl.de
Stromerzeuger ► Für die Orte wo sich sonst keine Stromquelle befindet ✓ Finde den passenden Stromerzeuger - anschließen und Los gehts
(www.lidl.de)
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Brilliant news! The UK's Labour Government are going to make "plug in solar" legal.
Grab some panels from Lidl, hang them off your balcony or out your window, plug them in to your mains. Done!
Government to go "further and faster" in becoming energy secure
The Energy Secretary outlines measures to protect consumers and make Britain energy secure.
GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
@Edent in case anyone missed it, here's a primer on the potential of solar.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KtQ9nt2ZeGM
Watch or listen to the end.
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Oh, come on. I don't have to make sense when I take cheap shots, do I?
@Walrus Kinda, yeah.
I used to work for the UK Government. We spent a lot of time and energy publishing things as clearly as possible.Then some cleverdick would complain that we hadn't done a good enough job when, in reality, they just hadn't bothered looking.
I think that press release is pretty clearly written. If you genuinely don't then, yes, you should write to your representatives and complain. That's the only way feedback gets heard.
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Oh, come on. I don't have to make sense when I take cheap shots, do I?
@Walrus @Edent Aren't the issues with unlimited / random feed back in to grid related to the infrastructure to handle it.
I may be wrong, but I assumed the hassle to get the limit on what we can feed in to to technical, not political.
If it is purely political, then hell yeh. Feed in that sunshine, and battery,
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@Walrus @Edent Aren't the issues with unlimited / random feed back in to grid related to the infrastructure to handle it.
I may be wrong, but I assumed the hassle to get the limit on what we can feed in to to technical, not political.
If it is purely political, then hell yeh. Feed in that sunshine, and battery,
@revk
Yeah, the DNO can object if you're planning to put dozens of panels up and they think the grid can't handle it.But balcony solar is likely to only be a couple of panels per household. Results from Germany are encouraging (albeit a different grid to ours).
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@revk
Yeah, the DNO can object if you're planning to put dozens of panels up and they think the grid can't handle it.But balcony solar is likely to only be a couple of panels per household. Results from Germany are encouraging (albeit a different grid to ours).
@Edent I thought 3.1kW was allowed or some similar amount, for feed in without approval, so that sort of already covers it, no?
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@Edent I thought 3.1kW was allowed or some similar amount, for feed in without approval, so that sort of already covers it, no?
@revk TBH, it seems to change regularly. When we had ours done 5ish years ago it required DNO sign off, I think.
But, yeah, with all the grid upgrades going on it looks like it is just a regulatory problem.
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Brilliant news! The UK's Labour Government are going to make "plug in solar" legal.
Grab some panels from Lidl, hang them off your balcony or out your window, plug them in to your mains. Done!
Government to go "further and faster" in becoming energy secure
The Energy Secretary outlines measures to protect consumers and make Britain energy secure.
GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
@Edent I wonder why they were illegal in the first st place, are they notorious shoplifters or something?
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@Walrus @Edent Aren't the issues with unlimited / random feed back in to grid related to the infrastructure to handle it.
I may be wrong, but I assumed the hassle to get the limit on what we can feed in to to technical, not political.
If it is purely political, then hell yeh. Feed in that sunshine, and battery,
I think you're right. Most meters presumably only measure what comes in. we have a separate export meter for our solar panels.
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@Edent I wonder why they were illegal in the first st place, are they notorious shoplifters or something?
@inpc because the grid was originally designed to support electricity flowing in one direction.
It's a bit like asking why it's illegal to connect your sewage pipe back into the mains. It wasn't designed for that and it carries risks.
Thankfully, the grid is mostly upgraded and can now handle energy flowing in both directions.
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@revk TBH, it seems to change regularly. When we had ours done 5ish years ago it required DNO sign off, I think.
But, yeah, with all the grid upgrades going on it looks like it is just a regulatory problem.
@Edent @revk from the press release it seems the govt are working on making the process and regulations clearer to deal with (a consumer is going to have to tell the supplier to get the export enabled on the smart meter and the second MPAN allocated)
However DNO infrastructure isn't always the best (neighbour with 0 export, EV's or anything like that had a service cable failure, it took a month for UKPN to remove the temporary link from the next door house and rebuild the cable, which involved a week of having the road up and parking restrictions outside my house). There's also been at least one "make pumps 2" fire from an overloaded service cable on my street..
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@inpc because the grid was originally designed to support electricity flowing in one direction.
It's a bit like asking why it's illegal to connect your sewage pipe back into the mains. It wasn't designed for that and it carries risks.
Thankfully, the grid is mostly upgraded and can now handle energy flowing in both directions.
@Edent thanks for the explaination.
I'm now tempted to plug a sewage pipe back into the mains for the lolz tho. -
@Walrus @Edent Aren't the issues with unlimited / random feed back in to grid related to the infrastructure to handle it.
I may be wrong, but I assumed the hassle to get the limit on what we can feed in to to technical, not political.
If it is purely political, then hell yeh. Feed in that sunshine, and battery,
@revk @Walrus @Edent
I'm not an electrical engineer so this might not be the whole story.As you add generation to the local distribution network, and assuming there's not enough local demand to consume it all, the voltage rises. Eventually it gets to 258V (230+12%) which is the upper tolerance limit. At that point, local generation starts to shut down.
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@revk @Walrus @Edent
I'm not an electrical engineer so this might not be the whole story.As you add generation to the local distribution network, and assuming there's not enough local demand to consume it all, the voltage rises. Eventually it gets to 258V (230+12%) which is the upper tolerance limit. At that point, local generation starts to shut down.
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All well and good, but folk then start to complain to their suppliers (and from there to the DNO) that, on sunny summer days, their solar inverter has shut down and they've missed out on savings/earnings.
The DNO limit / permission process is designed to keep export low enough that the local network rarely reaches 258V and they don't get deluged with complaints from their customers.
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Brilliant news! The UK's Labour Government are going to make "plug in solar" legal.
Grab some panels from Lidl, hang them off your balcony or out your window, plug them in to your mains. Done!
Government to go "further and faster" in becoming energy secure
The Energy Secretary outlines measures to protect consumers and make Britain energy secure.
GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
@Edent
Not if you live on a listed residential estate -
@Edent
Not if you live on a listed residential estate@Christo_459 You should write to your MP and assembly member to let them know your concerns.
But, it looks like you can apply for consent for a listed building.
https://historicengland.org.uk/advice/technical-advice/building-services-engineering/installing-photovoltaics/consents-permissions/ -
All well and good, but folk then start to complain to their suppliers (and from there to the DNO) that, on sunny summer days, their solar inverter has shut down and they've missed out on savings/earnings.
The DNO limit / permission process is designed to keep export low enough that the local network rarely reaches 258V and they don't get deluged with complaints from their customers.
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