GOING SOLAR? MAYBE

Going solar down in Chicapulco to turn those high bills round.

For the past 6 months, I’ve been dedicated to the quest of looking into solar energy because I’ve come to the conclusion that the only way you’re ever going to bring those high energy costs down is by generating your own power. If only I could erect a wind turbine in the back garden to make the most of those persistent Chichester gusts!

Blessed with a south east facing back roof that gets non-stop sunshine all summer long (when not raining) then I guess we’d be foolish not to take advantage of the potential to generate lots of lovely ‘free’ energy plus earn a few extra quid selling any surpluses back to the grid. What’s not to like?

Perfect for solar panels

Aside from the cost of the installation, I was all set to sign on the dotted solar line when one of the installers I’d approached for a quote dropped the magic phrase into the conversation which stopped me dead in my tracks.

‘Bloody hells bells’ spluttered the other half into his partially drunk glass of cider. ‘There’ll be no shutting her up after this!’

You might well ask what could have been said in the conversation that stopped the rampaging rhino. It was the phrase – “propping up the grid”.

Rewind to a point months earlier during mid solar research. Surfing the solar wave, I discovered a few things I really didn’t like all that much:

Firstly, in order to fully benefit from any export tariffs, solar customers who wish to sell their surplus power back to the grid need to have a smart meter installed. You all know my thoughts on smart meters. I’d rather stick a prickly pear up my arse than have one of those faulty spy devices installed.

Secondly, there’s something called VPP and that’s what scared the crap out of my solar plans. Your energy system including power stored in your solar batteries could be accessed remotely by something called a Virtual Power Plant. Did you know this?

During periods of high energy demand on the grid, the VPP could essentially pull the energy rug from right under your feet leaving you sucked dry of power when you might need it most. It does this by remotely accessing your system using software that controls not just your solar set up but that of loads of other people, aggregating the power to form a large central cyber power plant. Hence the ‘propping up the grid’.

Rather than establish proper cable connections from all those wind or solar farms being propped up by Government finance, energy suppliers could be nicking your stored electricity straight from your batteries because these will already be linked into the Grid. Naturally, it will use the smart spying device sitting smugly in your garage or meter cupboard to root out anyone that’s sitting on solar spoils and then it will shamelessly strip you of them.

Thirdly, there could come a time in the future when energy suppliers stop paying you for surplus electricity especially when that new nuclear power station is built or when there is so much free leccy sloshing about that the Grid just won’t be interested in taking any more on. As a nation, we’re already paying wind farms to switch off when there’s excess supply but low demand so why would the Grid or anyone else for that matter want to pay you? They’ll source power from organisations contracted with the Government to supply power. Or they’ll just taper off all feed-in tariffs once they have enough solar suckers automatically feeding the power-hungry grid monster. Once you’re dangling on the line, there’s no getting off the hook – they’ll just reel you in.

I don’t know about you but if I wanted to generate electricity for the nation then I’d have set myself up in business as an energy supplier. I’m definitely not looking to be a ‘grid propper-upper’ or the like. All I want is to knock a few quid off my own bills by being energy self-sufficient.

What puts me off even more is the UK’s irrational fear of missing out on the global AI fad. Once all those data centres pepper our green and pleasant land, the Grid is likely to be hunting out any pockets of power to ensure the fire of these data dragons doesn’t go out. It’s not going to care if you’ve opted into a VPP arrangement or not, it’ll probably just steal your electricity regardless because AI data centres will be far more important than you or I.

And so, dear readers, this is the dilemma – to solar or not to solar? Should I bite the £10K bullet but risk losing my lovely leccy to the shameless VPP grabbing hands or should I just continue being a power slave to the God of Electrification?