Discuss Refused Connection in the Solar PV Forum | Solar Panels Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

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So if I wanted solar as every one in my street had it, you might not be able to do it as there is already enough going into the grid ?
we'd only be able to install 16 amps per phase, and even then there's a risk of inverters tripping out due to the grid voltage being pushed out of range. It's going to become much more of an issue very rapidly in the next few years as we start maxing out the existing grid capacity with very dumb controls.

We've now hit the half way point to the 10GWp the grid reckons is the maximum sustainable without any form of smarter control of inverters etc.

Unfortunately nobody has done anything about smarter control of inverters, completely ignoring the lessons from Germany where they've had smart grid control of inverters for several years using the exact same inverters we're installing, presumably because nobody in power has much of a clue about this stuff - I know when we raised this at the G83/2 discussions, it caught OFgem and the DNOs on the hop as they'd no idea what was actually possible. At the time it was suggested this could come in with G83/3 in a few years, but they seriously understimated the speed the industry would be installing at, so in the meantime we've hit half their stated limit while they fiddle with other stuff.

Problem being, the greater the level of uncontrolled inverters we install now, the higher the level of restrictions that will end up being placed on smart controlled inverters later on, which is pretty silly really, and could end up restricting the total level possible to a lot lower than would be the case if we'd started with smart control from 1GWp onwards rather than waiting until we hit 10GWp.

[dismounts from soap box]
 
FYI, 4-Noks are going to port across a similar system to the Elios PRO that they use in mainland Europe that allows export management for up to 200kW (maybe 250kW) systems, with security/lockout of parameters. It's an available solution but just not yet configured for the UK market. Would be handy to have an idea of potential demand though, although I know personally of multiple situations where this is required, and will probably be more frequently required as the grid gets more and more saturated.

The electromechanical solution that Worcester refers to is a valid option that is almost 100% fail safe but it's primitive in that it switches off inverter(s) completely. Most modern European manufactured inverters have a facility to throttle their output to a preset % of peak power, in several steps - something that the German/Italian/Spanish grid operators do remotely if required (or managed by 3rd parties according to grid demand etc). We have somewhat different challenges over here to facilitate this kind of control but a closed loop feedback system using something like the P1 (ABB) PMU that Gavin is using, along with an export energy monitor like the Elios can provide a decent granularity of control compared to actually switching inverters off.
My area has not a lot of capacity left. Solar farms are popping up all over. The cereal farmers can make more money from renting land then actually farming it.
 
the clever ones are having the panels raised above ground and animals below.

they get more income from the same land then
no problem with pasture land (particularly as much of that has been left fallow anyway with reduction in cattle herds), but prime arable land should be used for growing crops, not solar, not grazing.

Something's gone wrong at a policy level if this is happening on a large scale.
 
Cereal land can be heavy going. Nothing will grow on it except cereal crops and the return on that is less than solar.
 

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