Australia has so much solar that it’s offering everyone free electricity
The Australian government is floating a scheme that would share the benefits of solar power with everyone on the grid, offering totally free electricity to ratepayers in the middle of the day, when the sun is shining the strongest.
Australia is a sunny place. It’s kind of known for it. It’s the sunniest continent, and the sunniest country outside of the Middle East/Africa, with extensive photovoltaic power potential across its entire territory.
In recognition of that, Australia has been installing lots of solar power. Formerly a coal-heavy nation (for which coal is still its 2nd-largest export), solar and wind have rapidly taken over Australia’s electricity grid, pushing coal and methane gas out of the equation.
This has taken a big chunk out of Australia’s electricity-related climate emissions, and of course resulted in clean air benefits as dirty coal is pushed out of the grid. And climate emissions matter a lot for Australia, a country that is becoming more unbearably hot and suffering more fires due to climate change. (Though Australia is also a great example of how global cooperation on environmental issues can fix a huge problem, as they are the primary beneficiary of global action on closing the hole in the Ozone layer)
So solar power has been a great thing for Australia, especially with rooftop solar on Australian homes.
But it can lead to swingy electricity supply, given that solar only generates electricity when the sun is out.
How swings in solar supply and electricity pricing work
Most areas have certain times of day where more electricity is used than others. These are referred to as “peak hours” and generally they happen in the early evening, when people get home from work, turn on the HVAC, cook dinner, do laundry and the like.
But there are also certain times of day when more electricity is generated, and that’s particularly the case in places with high solar penetration. Solar obviously generates energy only during the day, and creates a peak of generation in the middle of the day, when most people are at work.
There are ways to mitigate this – for example, with batteries, which Australia has also used a lot of (and is thinking about extending that to EV batteries too). Wind power also helps, since wind tends to pick up in the hours that solar is dropping off.
But another way to mitigate it is through simple economics. Offer people lower prices in the hours that electricity is more abundant, and higher prices in hours where it isn’t. Then, people will tend to use electricity when they can – especially if they have shiftable loads like electric cars, laundry, pool pumps and such, which don’t need to be on at the same time every day (unlike HVAC, cooking, and lighting, for example).
Most electricity providers will offer something like this, called a “time of use” plan. These plans differ in their rates and peak hours depending on your location and how the supply/demand curves work for electricity there (and have seen common use among electric car owners because of the outsized effect an EV has on home electricity use).
On the utility side, though, the swings in price can be much more drastic. Wholesale prices for electricity can go up to multiple dollars per kilowatt-hour during times of extreme demand when the grid is stressed, and electricity prices can even go negative when there is little demand and lots of supply, particularly on an islanded grid like Australia (this also happens in Texas, where the grid is largely disconnected from the rest of the US). These swings are ironed out for the consumer, so things aren’t as spiky for us, but it can be quite a rollercoaster on the grid side.
In Australia and other places with high solar penetration, these negative electricity prices often happen during the day. That’s when generation is the highest for solar panels, and household loads are typically low.
Australia proposes letting everyone benefit from negative wholesale rates
So, the Australian government has decided on a scheme to bring those electricity savings to the consumer, with what its calling its “Solar Sharer” program.
The program would require electricity retailers to provide free electricity to everyone for at least three hours a day, in recognition of the incredibly low wholesale cost of electricity during daytime due to extensive solar power penetration.
These would likely be in the middle of the day, when most people aren’t home. However, every home has some amount of shiftable electricity load, and the Solar Sharer scheme would encourage people to make use of that. With modern appliances that can be scheduled to start in the middle of the day, people can just plan to do laundry, run the dishwasher, run the pool pump, or charge their car at noon, instead of whenever else they were going to.
Additionally, people could fill up a home battery during the day, and then use that electricity during peak hours when rates are higher. And this plan will help to incentivize private installation of batteries, or other shiftable loads.
The overall effect of this is that it will help to iron out electricity use, making it track more closely with electricity supply, reducing the need for grid upgrades to manage swings in generation. Just turning on this simple behavioral switch, and then publicizing it so customers know to use electricity in the free hours, will both help the grid and help ratepayers save money.
Better yet, this scheme will apply not just to people who have solar or home batteries, but to people who live in places where they can’t put up solar – those who live in apartments and the like. The government says it will require companies to offer this scheme to all customers, not just those with solar.
The government did receive some pushback from electricity retailers, who feel they were not properly consulted on the plan. But Australia’s Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen said he would make “no apologies” if this scheme reduced their margins, and that “consumers are put first” as reported by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The government plans to implement the scheme starting in July next year, first in Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia. If it works well, other regions will get it starting in 2027.
Electrek’s Take
Australia is doing a lot of great things with electricity, and acting somewhat like a natural laboratory for a lot of ideas that people have been talking about for a long time. Since the whole country has similar solarization, it can work somewhat as a unit in pushing for solar power, and for reforms to help enable it.
It’s already working on V2G, with a huge trial started recently, and the wide adoption of solar and batteries is proving that even a solar-heavy grid can still work. And an idea like this, showing how simple economics can be used to change consumer behavior, could provide a model for the rest of the world on how to usher us into a cleaner energy future.
So we’ll be watching with interest how this turns out – I think it will likely turn out quite well, if the government goes through with it fully.
The 30% federal solar tax credit is ending this year. If you’ve ever considered going solar, now’s the time to act. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
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Environment
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Tesla will continue to extend its “one-time” FSD transfer scheme for at least another quarter, according to CEO Elon Musk at today’s Tesla shareholder meeting.
Tesla’s shareholder meeting is underway, and the big headline is that shareholders have enthusiastically voted against their own interests, diluting their own voting rights and handing more control of the company to the one person on Earth currently negatively affecting its business the most, CEO Elon Musk.
At the end of the meeting, Tesla hosted a Q&A session with shareholders in attendance, and one of them asked a question we’ve heard before: whether Tesla owners who purchased Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software, which still has not been delivered despite the first purchases happening almost a decade ago at this point, would be able to transfer the licenses to that undelivered software if they choose to buy a new Tesla vehicle.
So far, Tesla’s official policy has been that owners must purchase FSD with each new vehicle they buy, and can’t transfer the licenses between them. However, it did offer a “one-time” exception to that rule for a two month period in 2023. After that, Tesla owners would never be allowed to transfer their FSD license again.
Well, except for the next time that Tesla allowed it. Then the next time. Then Tesla saying no, it won’t come back. Then it came back.
And now, it’s still active, having started in April.
So, the question was perhaps a little out of date. The program hasn’t just been active for a single quarter this time, but for the last half-year. There is no listed end date on Tesla’s website.
Nevertheless, Musk answered the question thusly:
We have done that a few times. I guess we could extend it again. Alright, we’ll extend it for at least another quarter, and then play it by ear after that.
This in fact seems like a limitation as compared to the current status of the program, since it is active with no end date at the moment. Musk mentioning that it might only last for another quarter suggests it may end earlier than Tesla’s website language currently suggests.
However, it’s been apparent all along that this is more of a way to stoke demand, hoping to get current owners to purchase FSD on new cars, so Tesla can hold on to the up to $15,000 it charged those owners for undelivered software.
Musk has continually stated, for more than a decade, that FSD is right around the corner. Consumers were led to believe that their FSD systems would be active soon, with Musk often stating it would be released by “next year.” Musk said that owners would be able to make money by running a robotaxi service, and that their cars would be “appreciating assets” because of it – and now Tesla is making revenue like that, but you can’t.
The years have come and went, and many cars are either out of service, getting old and reaching time for replacement, or owners have been scared away by Musk’s disgusting and high-profile political actions which have included sympathizing with Nazis.
Those owners who have moved on will seemingly never get back their investment into the false promises that Musk advanced, but it only makes sense that owners who do want to retain their license and move it to a new vehicle should be able to do so. Tesla sold software, the software still isn’t working, and people should be able to enjoy that software for a reasonable amount of time if they bought it.
And yet, Tesla continues jerking its most loyal owners around, those who have held strong through the incredible brand damage Musk is doing, and suggesting that the right thing to do is only available as a limited opportunity – trying to nickel and dime the most loyal owners into buying new cars earlier than they would have planned, with the specter of having to re-purchase FSD if they didn’t do so.
That said, there are several current cases in court covering the issue of Tesla’s false advertising regarding FSD. So this issue might be solved for the company by outside forces eventually anyway. But it would have been better if Tesla just did the right thing to begin with – which it continually resists doing.
The 30% federal solar tax credit is ending this year. If you’ve ever considered going solar, now’s the time to act. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk pushed back the dates for a demo of the next-gen Tesla Roadster, which he has said will be able to “fly” and suggested that it might not even be a car at all.
Tesla has been teasing the existence of a future, high-performance sportscar model for years now. Originally it was unveiled in 2017 for a 2020 release, but has been repeatedly pushed back, with another delay today.
Just last week, Musk said that a demo was coming at the end of the year of the Roadster, and that it would be perhaps the most exciting demo of any product ever. Musk also stated that the Roadster will have more tech than all James Bond vehicles combined
Today, he was asked a question at Tesla’s shareholder meeting about the status of that project (including whether the “James Bond” tech would make it to other Teslas – to which Musk responded “um, no”). Here’s the full answer regarding the product’s unveiling:
The product unveil of the Roadster 2, which will be very different than what we’ve shown previously, that demo event will be April 1 of next year. I have some deniability because I can say I was just kidding. But we are actually tentatively aiming for April 1, for what I think will be the most exciting, whether it works or not, demo of any product. And then I guess production is probably about 12-18 months after that. I think production is about a year or so after that.
When the questioner seemed to respond with disbelief with that answer (who ever thought that this car could ever possibly be delayed?!), Musk answered:
Well, I can’t give away secrets, but you won’t be disappointed.
Musk also said, during the meeting, that owners of Founders’ Series reservations, which represent a $250,000 loan given to Tesla for the last 8 years, would all be invited to the demo.
This new timeline represents yet another delay for the oft–delayed vehicle. The most recent official announcement suggested it would go into production this year, though Musk has waffled on that.
So, this official announcement puts us back to a timeline of April 1 for the reveal, which is a delay of at least 3 months from when it was supposed to occur as of last week, and production starting (not cars hitting the road) at least in April 2027, or at late as potentially October 2027. If we take the higher end of that range, then the Roadster is likely to only be available in 2028, 11 years after its first unveiling and 8 years after original estimates.
That said, it’s not much of a surprise that the Roadster would be delayed again. Just last week, we saw a new job listing for the Roadster, looking for a “concept development” engineer. That’s a fairly early part of the production process, and even makes it seem like a 2027 release could be optimistic.
In the interim, several other high-performance electric cars have appeared to give the “hard-core smack down” to gas-powered cars that Musk promised.
We’ve seen records set by the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra, built by a smartphone company from concept to production in just a couple years. We’ve seen the Rimac Nevera R get to 186mph faster than a Bugatti Chiron Super Sport. We’ve seen the Lotus Evija X, which set the third-fastest Nurburgring lap ever, only beaten by two one-off, track-only, purpose-built racecars (one of which is a hybrid, the other is electric). And we’ve seen the BYD Yangwang U9 Xtreme become the fastest production car ever at 308(!!!) miles per hour.
These are milestones that the Roadster might have been able to take a shot at, but time has passed it by, and others have stepped in in the Roadster’s absence.
But maybe that doesn’t matter, because Musk’s comments today suggest the Roadster might not be what we expected.
All along, it has been assumed that the Roadster will be something like the original version unveiled in 2017. But today, Musk said it will be “very different than what we’ve shown previously.” We don’t know what those differences entail – whether it just means the car will have new tech, or if it will be a completely different style of car.
We can imagine that anyone who gave Tesla a $250,000 loan for ten years might be bothered by ending up with a totally different bill of goods than they put their money down for, though, so we hope the plan is to at least keep it a sportscar.
There are some questions about whether these technologies Musk has mentioned will be on the car, though, and if they will be helpful for anything other than a demo if so.
Recently, Tesla patented a “fan car” system which would enhance grip. It’s actually a pretty cool patent, with interesting improvements over previous implementations of the same idea.
But it is decidedly not a “flying car.” In fact, being able to fly would not actually help sportscar performance, and would actually hurt it. Sportscars are typically looking to maximize downforce in the most efficient manner, in order to enhance grip, but to fly, one must create “upforce,” which isn’t a term anyone uses because it creates no actual performance benefit.
So, while it is highly expected that the Roadster demo might be able to “fly,” we hope that doesn’t make it to production on a sportscar, as that’s more of a parlor trick and would take performance benefits away from where they would be more useful – like having a fan car system, or directional jets to increase lateral acceleration, rather than useless upwards acceleration.
The 30% federal solar tax credit is ending this year. If you’ve ever considered going solar, now’s the time to act. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
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