Understanding Solar Energy

There seems to be a real cultural obsession with going off grid, that this article reflects.

It's therefore confusing if they're talking about a nation/state or a household.

For a household, assuming you don't want to disconnect from the grid, the calculation is about how to offset as much of your energy costs you can displace with solar, and how to shift cheap energy from overnight with batteries as well as time shift solar generstion. A different and in many ways more interesting question in the abstract while also more practical too.

With net metering going away now people want batteries for self consumption, then the grid becomes a backup.

In my area we still have net metering but the grid tends to go down a lot with even a mild storm, so many have backup propane generators, however some like me are doing whole house solar with batteries for backup instead, it cost 3x as much but pays you back over time with little maintenance compared to a generator.

I will admit there is a prepper aspect, with well and septic and solar the only thing I need is food which I can try and grow. The Sol-Ark inverter in my install even offers EMP hardening which I almost went for :).

Getting grid hookup in rural property can be expensive or impossible depending on where you are at, solar with satellite internet means no problem wherever you want to build if done right.

Evolving this line of thought further, if you do not want to disconnect from the grid, there's also an option to participate in the electricity market.

Someone with a battery can buy up cheap electricity at night or whenever their electricity supplier deems it off-peak and thus cheap, so a battery can heavily influence the average price of energy as calculated here by Michael de Podesta: https://protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2025/02/16/the-mos...

The other way to participate in the electricity market is that in EU the end users can access a plan that in some way reflects day-ahead market prices. If you have a battery, you can now buy the midday solar dip around 0 eur/mwh energy plus network charges and sell at the evening price of 300 eur/mwh.