Comment by Scoundreller
5 years ago
Although I guess they "burn" their excess on-site, doesn't it make sense for solar panels to send power to a load at all times?
If they didn't, wouldn't that unspent energy make the panels even hotter and shorten lifespan/reduce efficiency?
It doesn't make sense for them to be sending power to the grid if they earn negative dollars doing it.
No, there's no cost to just not drawing power from the modules. They would become slightly hotter, but that's not a big deal.
I mean, if they're 20% efficient, then shunting the energy would mean they have 4/5ths the energy getting turned into heat, no?
In the US southwest, where it's the hottest here, most new utility-scale PV is using single axis trackers. So curtailment there could mean turning away from the Sun.