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Tesla Solar Sales Declined for 4 Qtrs. Then Tesla Stopped Publishing the Numbers

(cleantechnica.com)
171 points elsewhen | 4 comments | 09 Apr 25 12:41 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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boringg ◴[09 Apr 25 13:31 UTC] No.43631867[source]▶
Can I add that outside of the political commentary because thats mainly the only reason this is on hackernews.

There are mounting challenges in climate tech - specifically in residential solar: 1. Residential solar has been under punishing economic headwinds. Tariffs (before this) against imported PV. The market has not been performing. 2. Many of the Public Utilities are making it very difficult for solar to work out financially for home owners - see CPUC in California changing the terms of NEM to the advantage of the Utilities as an example. 3. Energy storage in residential markets has ALWAYS been an insurance product/backup power and not a financially beneficial product. It is tough competition against generators etc 4. Utilities are wisening up and increasing their fees and reducing the benefits of on site power generation. 5. Residential solar has likely already found all the best home owners (ie lowest CAC) so are now pursuing harder to reach.

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pjc50 ◴[09 Apr 25 13:41 UTC] No.43631969[source]▶
Sadly, all those points but 5 are also political. The US isn't serious about it, for whatever (political/economic) reasons.

The UK, on the other hand: https://www.fmb.org.uk/homepicks/news/surge-in-solar-panel-i... ; helped by an efficiency mandate on new houses.

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1. piokoch ◴[09 Apr 25 14:00 UTC] No.43632219[source]▶
Let's compare UK and USA electricity prices.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/263492/electricity-price...

It seems that something is not working that great in the UK...

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2. youngtaff ◴[09 Apr 25 14:05 UTC] No.43632294[source]▶
UK electricity prices are set by the highest priced generator which is normally gas

Eventually more green energy will overcome this issue

Many of the commercial solar and wind farms run on a contracts for difference price - they're guaranteed a price for the energy they produce and when the market price goes over that a rebate get's paid to a Quango and should eventually feed into bills payers prices

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3. frenchman_in_ny ◴[09 Apr 25 18:37 UTC] No.43635757[source]▶
Re "UK electricity prices are set by the highest priced generator which is normally gas"

Worldwide, electricity prices are set by the highest priced generator at the given moment of needed generation -- it's the dispatch curve. And generally, the generators that are the fastest to spin up to meet that incremental load are natural gas fired generators.

As to the GP's point, my intuition (happy to be proven wrong) is more that natural gas, and therefore electricity, is cheaper in the US, simply because it's more abundant in the US.

4. jjav ◴[10 Apr 25 08:03 UTC] No.43641741[source]▶
> Let's compare UK and USA electricity prices.

The USA is a huge place with prices all over the map.

Here are PG&E electricity prices in California from my recent bill:

peak: 53.0 + 18.3 = 71.3 c/kWh

partpeak: 51.3 + 11.1 = 62.4 c/kWh

offpeak: 34.4 + 09.8 = 44.2 c/kWh