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Youdenyesterday at 9:35 PM1 replyview on HN

Is that price for Switzerland? What time of year is that power available?

Here's how much each energy source contributes to Switzerland's grid: https://energiedashboard.admin.ch/strom/produktion

Right now, solar and other renewables produce enough energy to meet about two thirds of our demand. Solar alone produced around 55GWh of the needed 169GWh yesterday.

Look at new year's day though: consumption was 192GWh (14% higher than yesterday) and yet solar only produced 11.4GWh and that was an unusually good day for winter.

You can't talk about the price of solar, even solar with storage, without talking about the climate it's in. Assuming your prices are for summer or a mild climate like California, you need to multiply those by around 6x to get a system that can replace nuclear for a baseline load in Switzerland.

That brings the price to $180-$510/MWh.

FWIW: I live in Switzerland and have solar panels and a battery on my house. I sell the obscene amount of excess solar I generate in summer to the grid which covers much of the cost I incur buying from the grid in winter. That power is generated by nuclear.


Replies

bryanlarsenyesterday at 9:55 PM

If you 6X the number of panels the price stays the same because you've increased the cost by 6X and increased the production by 6X.