Battery technology is ready for solar on the grid too.
The science is absolutely there, but manufacturing definitely isn’t. Making PV panels is so cheap and solar power is so popular, we’ve had 581 hours of negative electricity costs in the Netherlands in 2025. That’s basically 6 hours a day through the whole summer. Ironically, solar panels becomming cheap and plentiful is making it unprofitable to create place more solar panels because their most productive time is actually costing money. We’re actually getting close to the point where connecting a solar panel will cost you money if you supply directly to the market (which most consumers don’t, but that just means someone else pays for the losses).
It’s honestly absurd, since placing another solar panel WILL help reduce demand on non-renewable sources off-peak as well, but how the market works is actively working against burning less fossil fuels. And of course, battery parks need some serious infrastructure, which you also can’t exactly just plop down.
Installing batteries is the perfect solution for that, but it’s very slow going. And even batteries won’t fix the summer/winter power production problem.
The science is absolutely there, but manufacturing definitely isn’t. Making PV panels is so cheap and solar power is so popular, we’ve had 581 hours of negative electricity costs in the Netherlands in 2025. That’s basically 6 hours a day through the whole summer. Ironically, solar panels becomming cheap and plentiful is making it unprofitable to create place more solar panels because their most productive time is actually costing money. We’re actually getting close to the point where connecting a solar panel will cost you money if you supply directly to the market (which most consumers don’t, but that just means someone else pays for the losses).
It’s honestly absurd, since placing another solar panel WILL help reduce demand on non-renewable sources off-peak as well, but how the market works is actively working against burning less fossil fuels. And of course, battery parks need some serious infrastructure, which you also can’t exactly just plop down.
Installing batteries is the perfect solution for that, but it’s very slow going. And even batteries won’t fix the summer/winter power production problem.