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Oil prices continue to bounce about with every speech and social media post put out by the Iran war’s belligerents [writes The Frugalist, who has the reins this weekend].
But the overall trend for prices is upwards. And that means increasing financial pressure on energy-intensive businesses and the electricity grid more generally.
Especially when you consider that the Strait of Hormuz normally carries a fifth of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports.
Think back to 2022 – LNG was cited as a key solution to the challenge of weaning off Russian gas imports.
Oh dear!
President Trump has praised the UAE’s decision this week to leave OPEC. But whatever happens with the oil cartel is unlikely to reverse the prices for gas and oil while conflict continues in Ukraine and Iran.
Besides, we have known for a long time that with growing global energy demand, a limited supply, and the increasing expense of extraction, fossil fuel prices would likely increase.
Okay, there might be the occasional reprieve. (More fracking, anyone?) But oil is never going to be cheap and abundant again.
Heating hurts
The situation is worse if you rely on physical fuel delivery to heat your home.
The UK government can’t fix the geopolitical issues, but at least it has expanded its Boiler Upgrade Scheme. This will now provide up to £9,000 in grants for households that use heating oil or liquefied petroleum gas to switch to heat pumps. This is separate from the direct funding for affected households that comes via local authorities.
How many such houses will prove suitable for getting the best out of a heat pump is a different question, however.
Can solar rescue us?
I’ve looked into solar myself on multiple occasions. Not because it makes a compelling alternative to investing in a global ETF, but because I like the principle of DIY-ing my own energy production. Saving on energy bills would justify the expenditure.
Now, solar panels have been plummeting in price. But installation costs are still a problem.
In fact when it comes to my own house, the scaffolding is so complex that I’d be several thousand pounds down before I’d even bought a panel.
Germany has led the way with a cheap and cheerful alternative – plug-in solar, where panels are plugged into an inverter and then directly into your mains. The electricity generated then flows to where it’s needed, without electricians, dedicated circuits, or formal declarations.
You’re free to put such panels on fences, shed roofs, or even to mount them on a wooden frame. (I can foresee my DIY skills and a large bucket of nails coming in handy again!)
The media has been getting into the question of whether plug-in solar is economically worthwhile.
But other, more thorny issues remain. Such as whether the panels present a safety risk – especially given British electrics have oddities that other countries haven’t had to worry about.
Solar flares
I’ve noticed more than a few people seem to have decided to jump straight in with plug-in solar, even before government legalisation. Many vendors report they’ve sold out.
This may prove premature. I expect home insurers will be paying especially close attention to fires with large claims attached to see if unapproved inverters were plugged into the mains.
Also, if plug-in solar is only an option for homeowners and not the rental sector, then that will limit their beneficial impact. Figuring out a balance between making plug-in solar safe, not exposing landlords to liability, and enabling renters to install their own panels will be tricky. And I expect the government will still get some flak for not doing it quickly or safely enough.
Admittedly, fitting a few hundred watts of solar panels to hundreds of thousands – even millions – more homes won’t instantly get us off fossil fuels.
But even if it looks like plug-in solar will take a few years to pay off financially, as soon as the standards are approved and the safety aspects sorted, I’ll be at the front of the supermarket queue for my kit.
Hopefully, just in time to pair some panels with the summer BBQ.
On that note, I hope you have a great Saturday!
From Monevator
Handbags at the dawn of the AI era – Monevator
Cash total returns: a long run index for DIY investors – Monevator
From the archive-ator: Reasons to rent a house instead of buying – Monevator
News
Bank of England votes to hold base rate at 3.75% – The Intermediary
High Street sales in biggest drop for more than 40 years… – This Is Money
…with stalwart outlet Claire’s closing 154 stores – This Is Money
Pensions Schemes Bill moves forward with ‘guardrails’ – Pensions Age
Edinburgh Worldwide admits defeat to Saba Capital – City AM
British Airways owner to raise air fares as fuel soars – This Is Money
BP profits more than double as Iran war sends oil prices higher – BBC
UAE quits OPEC – Sherwood
Savers still love their cash ISAs – Simon French via X
Products and services
Disclosure: Links to platforms may be affiliate links, where we may earn a commission. This article is not personal financial advice. When investing, your capital is at risk and you may get back less than invested. With commission-free brokers other fees may apply. See terms and fees. Past performance doesn’t guarantee future results.
NS&I’s new fixed-rate savings accounts pay up to 4.5% – M.S.E.
Mortgage borrowers ‘left in limbo’ by Bank Rate freeze – Moneyfacts
Get up to £1,500 cashback when you transfer your cash and/or investments to Charles Stanley Direct through this affiliate link. Terms apply – Charles Stanley
What life insurance actually costs – Which
Middle East crisis: will your travel insurer cover you? – M.S.E.
Get up to £200 cashback when you open an Interactive Investor SIPP. Terms and fees apply, affiliate link – Interactive Investor
Saving with eSIMS for travelling abroad – Be Clever With Your Cash
What’s happening to house prices? – Which
Grade II-listed homes in England, in pictures – Guardian
Comment and opinion
Banning payment for order flow is an EU blunder the UK shouldn’t repeat – City AM
Why private equity is likely in worse shape than private credit – Verdad
Diversifying during periods of positive stock-bond correlation – 7 Circles
Politics could push UK bond yields higher… – ING
…or has the gilt sell-off already gone too far? – JP Morgan
Naughty corner: Active antics
Are investors over-valuing Corning’s AI infrastructure business? – Morningstar
Seagate’s value continues to soar – Yahoo Finance
Tech stocks suffer after reports that OpenAI missed key targets – Sherwood
Will emerging market pioneer Mark Mobius be vindicated? – Morningstar
Prediction markets racing to ban insider trading – Fortune
The 15 stocks that returned the most over the past decade – Morningstar
Running away with it mini-special
How the two hour marathon barrier was broken – The Conversation
Adidas shares rise in wake of London Marathon sensation… – This Is Money
…though investors need to watch out for Chinese competitors – BBC
Kindle book bargains
Antifragile by Nassim Taleb – £0.99 on Kindle
The Big Short by Michael Lewis – £0.99 on Kindle
The Art of Statistics by David Spiegelhalter – £0.99 on Kindle
Not the End of the World by Hannah Ritchie – £0.99 on Kindle
Or pick up one of the all-time great investing classics – Monevator shop
Environmental factors
Air pollution during pregnancy may harm babies – Guardian
European sea temperatures reach highest levels recorded – Guardian
UK supermarkets to start selling plug-in solar panels… – The Independent
…but legislation might be needed to ensure renters can benefit – i Paper
Plug-in hybrid cars can be surprisingly expensive to run – This Is Money
US is making Europe pay for its half-hearted electrification… – Geoeconomic
…though the UK broke its solar generation record again – PV Magazine
Robot overlord roundup
White House memo claims mass AI theft by Chinese firms… – BBC
…while China blocks Meta’s purchase of Chinese AI firm – Reuters
Microsoft’s GitHub shifts to metered AI billing amid cost crisis – The Register
Can AI predict fund managers’ trades? – K.O.I.
Microsoft and OpenAI loosen ties – Spyglass
Switching AI vendors at scale isn’t easy – The Register
Not at the dinner table
US charges ex-FBI director James Comey for an Instagram post – Guardian
King Charles’ subtle but striking warning to America – CNN
How Péter Magyar toppled Viktor Orbán – The Bulwark
Hungary’s business elite pivots away vanquished PM [Paywall] – FT
Russian super yachts skip the Hormuz blockade – BBC
Off our beat
Electronic warfare is sowing confusion in cockpits – CNN
Australian teens say social media ban is not working – Fortune
What does the Zoological Society of London do? – Guardian
The gamers who lost money on Peter Molyneux’s last project – Ars Technica
Why low-frequency sound might explain haunted houses – Sci News
And finally…
“In most of our decisions, we are not betting against another person. Rather, we are betting against all the future versions of ourselves that we are not choosing.”
– Annie Duke, Thinking in Bets
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> given British electrics have oddities that other countries haven’t had to worry about
Yes, the ring mains system is perverse compared to the star wiring that seems to be more used in Continental systems. But the UK seems exceptionally fearful of electrickery. In Europe you find – shock (see what I did there) horror, light switches in bathrooms. In hotels in the States I found coffee machines in the bathrooms next to the sinks, which I do admit gave me a double take. Fair enough 110V is less than 240V and it’s perhaps balanced about ground but even 55V from the machine onto a wet hand in the sink is enough to spoil your morning. Given US litigiousness, it can’t be a common issue.
The papers aren’t full of dead continental Europeans taken out by their bathroom light switches and I vaguely recall sockets too, same for the Americans.
Anyway, cue all the usual suspects making a hue and cry and saying you have to rewire your house to use plug in solar. Nice little earner, guv, you may as well stick ’em on the roof if you’re going to take that hit. From one of the links in the post
> ‘plug-in’ solar PV systems connected to standard household sockets can cause overheating or otherwise impair the operation of protective devices such as RCDs.
Fair cop on the RCD on the same ring in a ring main system, although in practice I guess people will rig these on their outside sockets which are usually on a spur, and as long as they unplug the grid tie inverter which is hopefully anti-islanding when they want to mow the lawn the will be okay. BS on the overheating, your socket should be able to take full power and the transient to blow a 13A fuse and balcony systems aren’t going to be > 3kW anyway in the midsummer noonday sun. Possibly a case to regulate max power on balcony systems to 2kW. Peak midsummer insolation in London is ~ 5kWh/m^2 of which you’ll be extremely lucky to get a fifth in electrical power, so two square metres will be easily within spec, which happens to be about the size of a normal commonly used rooftop solar panel
The UK needs to grow a pair here, there’s endless capture of the wiring regs to layer extra safety against longer and longer tail risks. This is a country, remember, that thirty years ago required untrained customers to fit a mains plug on appliances and your great grandmother plugged her iron into the lamp circuit. These were things worth stopping. Balcony solar, not so much.
It’s the battery storage I’m scared of, particularly the benighted souls that screw a small car’s worth of LiIon batteries inside the house. I regularly pass a house with a nice Tesla battery screwed outside the house, well done them. Next to the gas meter…
You can sometimes get similar savings by having the battery and inverter, but don’t bother with the solar panels
Charge up on economy 7 overnight, and release over the day
Exceptions would be if you use more at night or have an electric car…
Why isn’t the equity market freaking out over the SoH situation? IEA Director “we are losing 13 mn barrels a day”. 1973 and 1979 oil shocks were 5 mn barrels/day, and 2022 shock 3 mn barrels/day. Inventories hit operational minimum between 9 and 30 May. It feels like the market under reaction to Covid in late January/early February 2020. Is it passive flows? It takes two to TACO, and I don’t think that Theran wants to, anymore than Hanoi in the Sixties. Noone wants to be bombarded, but some ideological regimes would rather fight and die than back down or surrender. I don’t think Washington gets it.
Excellent and very informative article. Thank you Frugalist
@DH. Look at something like the Dec WTI oil future, it’s up only $10 since the conflict started. Yes, spot oil has moved much more but the curve is backwardated and assumes that price will fall over the balance of the year.
A $10 move up in oil subtracts around $1.40 trillion from the US economy, but only if sustained over 12 months. Hence why we need to look at oil futures, not oil spot. A 1% move on the S&P adds around $650bn to US wealth. So a 2-2.5% move in the S&P can negate the impact of oil. That’s a weekly move for the S&P.
The US economy’s health is now much more defined by the level of the S&P than the level of oil. The US economy is based on broad based consumption combined with heavy capex by hyperscalers. It’s asset price inflation that both funds the consumption and acts as security for hyperscaler investment. It’s not household incomes or hyperscaler cashflows! The S&P really is just ‘too big to fail’.
So oil isn’t that important. Of course, that’s at the aggregate level. In the K shaped economy, those without assets get completely screwed but Trump doesn’t care about them. His MAGA base is a cult, and cultists always find ways to argue their supreme leader is correct. Doesn’t that sound like Iran …
What messes up this scenario is the assumption of a heavy backwardation in the oil curve. If incorrect, that would mean higher medium-term inflation expectations. That would push US bond yields much higher, making the environment for housing and capex-heavy hyperscalers very difficult. At that point, even a Trump TACO may not be enough. The Fed put may be called into question. It’s only really been tested in a deflationary environment, not a stagflationary one.
Just lost my comment to a page refresh, so to quickly summarise what I’d written(!)
@ermine thanks, I totally agree. I expect some products will show up shoddy wiring (and probably unfairly get the blame) but at some point you have to let householders make their own decision and not gate everything behind professionals. The batteries do worry me – not so much the ones currently on the market, but the imitations that will pop up for import where every penny of saving available has been done to maximise profit – if you can skip a fuse for 5c, someone will do it. Some of Big Clive’s teardowns on youtube have been terrifying.
@Matthew – yes, I’m interested in that with Octopus Intelligent Go. Buy for 4-5p /kwh overnight, and then use in the day. If it’s an affordable, plug in battery, the capacity probably won’t be enough to sustain the entire day but you’ll use 100% of its available capacity so should be cost effective. As ermine points out though, the quality is a big challenge there.
@WB, thank you
@DH and ZX, thanks for the input. I do wonder to what extent people are just optimistic that things will figure themselves out. Part of that question for me is whether there’s an intention to source more oil in the Atlantic (e.g. Venezuela) or whether people are just assuming that the current conflicts will sort themselves out. I’m not optimistic on that, but geopolitics can move very fast at the moment.
@ZX #5: v. helpful & thanks.
I don’t see the SoH double ‘blockade’ resolving soon. If there’s an escalation (Israel and/or US) v Iran later this year, then guessing Bab el-Mandeb will be at risk too (how appropriate it means Strait of Tears). Helium, urea etc getting critical. Not good for LICs in S Asia. Eventually hydrocarbon import dependent HICs like Japan will feel the pressure also. Semi fabs recycle most of their helium of course, but that can’t last forever. We’re at the FO part of FAFO with DJT2.0. What a place to be, stuck between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (betwixt Hegseth and the IRCG?)
I’ve ended up ~20% in MMF like cash (CSH2 ETF) in last couple of weeks due to a botched attempt at a cashback incentive induced fund platform transfer to Freetrade (about which, frankly, the less said the better), and I’m now thinking of holding fire on redeploying it into VWRL etc and instead putting on a bigger punt on (IMHO relatively cheap) Southern Cone producers like PBR and EcoPetrol and, maybe, also into some fertilizer producers.
A recently refurbished home just down the road from me was looking very nice, was worth a little under £2m…. problem with a solar panel/ inverter, has burnt the house out, scaffolding vanished recently , problem with insurance ? Definitely spoiled someone’s day, fortunately occupants were away at the time. It is probably unusual but a very visible cautionary tale that I drive by most days !
I have a family member, chartered electrical engineer, who is cautious on plug in solar on the basis that many households do not have regularly inspected or robust household electrical installations…
With respect to the energy crisis I tend to the view that it will resolve itself or if not we adapt and mitigate… However the sun was shining today and I looked at the large expanse of roof that I have facing east….
“thirty years ago required untrained customers to fit a mains plug on appliances”: and, if I may say so, I did it very well. The only time I’ve received an electric shock was in a laboratory where an electrician had cocked up the wiring after I was instructed not to wire the instrument myself because Shop Steward.
My colleagues had to physically restrain me from searching out the bloody electrician. Mind you, it did give me practice at doing a back somersault over a lab bench; there was always that.
Oil powered house owner here with Solar and battery and both petrol and EV cars. No heat pump as the running cost is very high for the heat output. Equally Solar output November to February is too low to run a heat pump without a massive array. Demand shifting to overnight electricity rates and storing it in your battery for daytime use is a winner but capacity not practical to run a heat pump in a large 400 year old house.
Oil will have to get close to 150$ a barrel and stay there for me to seriously look again. The oil fired AGA in the kitchen looks increasingly like it has had its day, however.
>Solar output November to February is too low to run a heat pump without a massive array.
Looking ahead, this statement (which I agree with) makes me think that the UK’s investment in solar will ultimately prove to have been a poor decision.
If we need enough electricity to run ubiquitous heat pumps across the winter solstice, then whatever we build to generate that (either nuclear or lots of wind plus an awful lot of storage?) is likely to be comfortably sufficient for the rest of the year.
Are there any useful cost benefit analyses for solar power? I’ll need to buy a place to live when I retire so wondering how to factor this in? Does anyone know if its worth looking for properties with roofs of a certain pitch and in a certain direction to keep the option open?
I’ve wondered whether solar power offers some protection against inflation – as with energy efficiency improvements, and how people living on investments might value such returns.
I always thought before, if you simply (tax efficiently) bought the shares of a solar farm in the desert, that doesn’t have to be in the UK, it could include wind farms, nuclear, etc – benefit from the efficiency of scale, essentially providing an income that offsets our energy usage, all managed for you. Sort of like buying shares in a farm rather than growing your own.
But an upgrade from that would be an index fund lol
@Jay there are plenty of estimators out there, including ones that will look at a satellite view of your house and provide figures, but I’m always a bit sceptical especially since many of them are also trying to sell a product. https://pvfitcalculator.energysavingtrust.org.uk/ is about as neutral an estimator as you’ll get, but it’s very high level. My understanding is that in general, you want a south facing roof. East / West can shave 20% off the figures, and North 50%, and since the numbers can already be marginal that can make it not worthwhile. I agree that inflation protection is a really interesting part of it – if you could get your house completely on electric, and your car, that’s a big chunk of uncertainty that you’ve removed from the inflation equation. However, it comes back to that problem mentioned above – for me, that calculator estimates more than a decade of payback, and I know it will be underestimating the scaffolding costs. I’d be very surprised if it earned more than a global index in an ISA. Alternatively, I could deploy a couple of plug in 400W panels with virtually no overhead costs, where the payback would be a lot quicker.
@Jay – My solar payback is 20 years which is longer than the life of the panels. South Facing 45 degree roof so as good as it gets. It was more about a bit of self sufficiency and learning about renewable energy (plus a complex planning issue with listed buildings). Battery system pays back in under 8 years as install cost negligible compared to solar. EV costs £4 for 300 miles ( 280 in winter and 320 in summer) on overnight rate. Get a Battery and EV but give Solar a miss unless it is about something more than money for you.
@FrequentFlyer @Frugalist #14-15: may I ask:
– What is the est. approx. cost of a 400 Watt plug in single panel system versus the same on the roof?
– Could you place a plug in panel on a directly South facing garden and run cable to house (and how expensive is an electrician likely to be for the connection)?
As a new gas boiler only costs £1,650 to £2,400; heat pumps (both air source and, even more so I’d guess, ground) will perhaps have an uphill struggle on affordability (especially sans grants, if Reform gets in come 2029 and then terminates the same).
On my earlier comment on oil, and given that the ostensible aim in markets is just to make money, and not to be proved right after the fact, the contrary perspective, for balance, to mine above (i.e. the other side of the argument that we’ll muddle through painlessly with demand destruction, efficiencies, rerouting, Russian and Venezuelan supply, and new energy sources); is provided by each of Jake Wallis Simson today, Hans van Leeuwen on Monday, and Benedict Smith on Wednesday in the Daily Torygraph. They each give seemingly sound and solid reasons as to why (they think) the oil/diesel (and associated products) situation may not be as dire as I fear(ed), as indeed does this Substaker here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/theoilbandit/p/hear-me-out
@DeltaHedge the cost of the panel is the same whether stand alone or roof. You save on the install cost. About £100 for a 400W panel and £100 for a weatherproof microinverter that mounts on the back of the panel and converts 48v Panel DC into Mains. You then have some mounting frame so say another £50. Call it £450 for a two-panel 800W system. If fully south facing and no shading at 45 degrees angle you may get 800kwh a year out of it in the UK. You would save c. £0.3 x 800 a year assuming daytime rate of 30p/kWh. If you have a battery your daytime rate is 7p because you filled the battery up overnight and so the saving is less. You will not be able to export the excess to the grid (but even then rates are 12p /kWh and will keep falling as there is so much solar getting connected to the grid now)
@Frugalist
>My understanding is that in general, you want a south facing roof. East / West can shave 20% off the figures, and North 50%,
This is about right. However, east or west facing can be worth considering if your peak demand is either early or late in the day and you don’t intend to have any storage.
Similarly FrequentFlyer’s calculations for savings depend on you being in to use the generated electricity.
Another thing to consider is obstructions between the panel and the sky, such as trees which can be surprisingly impactful when the sun is low to the horizon in winter, even after they have shed their leaves. I live on an east facing slope and as a consequence lose generation perceptibly earlier in the evening than someone living at the top as my sunset is effectively earlier.
@FrequentFlyer
>My solar payback is 20 years which is longer than the life of the panels.
This is possibly pessimistic on panel life. I had some panels installed 15 years ago, and it is hard to separate degradation from the noise of varying cloud cover over a quarter.
@DH If you asked a sparky to hook it up from the garden then I assume you can add another £1k (cable and consumer unit for a permanent connection). The savings above assume you always draw 800W at home even when not there and in all months. Probably 200W background load is more realistic. So your annual saving assuming plug in ( no Sparky) would be more like £75 than £250. If shading shortens the effective day then less (more likely for low mounted panels)
Some interesting costings here; with current power prices solar typically pays back in 7-10 years. My main piece of advice though, if you’re putting up scaffolding for any other reason – put in solar at the same time. Suddenly the payback is 3-4 years (and less if you have an electric car)
@xeny
>… makes me think that the UK’s investment in solar will ultimately prove to have been a poor decision.
Perfect for an equatorial/tropical environment with air-conditioning as you generate in line with demand. For a country like the UK, Solar generates in opposition to seasonal demand. Fine if it can pay its way as part of a mix but as you say probably a poor decision ultimately.
A good web site to see how much energy you should get from a solar system, broken down by month, for different panel tilt and orientation angles is
https://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvg_tools/en/
It is important to also consider shading. The cells inside panels are connected in series so shade on just 1 cell will take out a whole string. Even a little shade can have a big impact. So if plug-in panels are sitting in the garden surrounded by trees and shrubs they may produce a lot less energy than you hoped.
The seasonality of wind power is a much better match to UK consumption – wind generation in winter is roughly twice summer generation. But domestic wind turbines make no sense economically – turbines need to be big, and in windy locations (offshore) for low energy cost.
The debate between plug-in solar kits and permanent roof installations is about much more than just the initial cost; it is fundamentally about the electrical health of the house they are powering.
One of the biggest concerns is the massive gap in electrical safety checks. In the rental market, five-year inspections are a legal requirement, but for homeowners, there is no such rule.
Statistics suggest that about 70% of UK households have not had a professional electrical check in over a decade, and nearly two-thirds of people buy a home without ever seeing an (EICR) electrical installation condition report . This suggests that millions of people are essentially guessing that their wiring is safe before they add new technology like solar.
This lack of checking is particularly risky when you consider the equipment in many older homes. It is estimated that a vast majority of UK homes still use plastic consumer units, which were the standard for decades until non-combustible metal boxes became mandatory in 2016. Plastic boxes pose a much higher fire risk because they cannot contain a fire if a connection becomes loose or overheats.
When you add a source of power that back-feeds into the system, such as a plug-in solar kit, you are adding a constant stress to that old wiring and plastic box that it was never designed to handle. And insurance companies all over, always look out for, and relish a “get out” clause.
The safety data reflects these risks. Solar-related fires have seen a significant jump, with UK fire services now attending a solar fire roughly once every two days. It is rarely the panels themselves that fail; instead, about half of these incidents are caused by poor installation or faulty wiring that leads to electrical arcing. This is especially concerning with plug-in kits, which bypass the professional sign-off required for permanent roof systems. Failure to get an electrician to verify that your home’s safety switches can handle two-way power, might leave you without a working safety trip during a fault.
As for positioning, while the tech has improved, facing south still makes a notable difference. South-facing panels remain the gold standard for maxing out your energy yield. However, modern panels are much better at capturing electricity from a grey, clouded sky than older versions were. East and west roofs are now very common because they catch the morning and evening light when most people are actually home using power. North-facing roofs are technically possible but typically only produce about 60% of the energy of a south-facing one, but while the scaffolding is up, it’s worth considering adding to a North facing roof, but they are generally only used to top up a larger system rather than as a primary source.
More important than whether the panels are permanent or temporary, the system is only as safe as the wiring it is connected to. Getting a professional check on your consumer unit and house wiring before you buy is the best way to ensure your move to green energy doesn’t end up as toast.
apologies if you have already seen this on 60/40 discussions. maybe of interest to supporters.
https://www.morningstar.com/news/marketwatch/20260501154/why-the-6040-portfolio-is-crushing-it-despite-market-chaos-and-inflation-fears
Having got solar panels and both cars being EVs, I always like the idea of using the older car as a part-time solar battery for the house. I could then use my solar electricity and cheap night time electricity to power the house in the evening and when it’s cloudy in the day. It looks like this is still a bit of a pipe dream. Bidirectional chargers are a fortune and the car manufacturers are worried about the battery degradation rates apparently.
Unless I am missing something using the ev battery as a means of off peak energy storage via bi-directional charging will be game changing for ev households and the energy grid as a whole. It seems strange why this isn’t being pushed more by government and the car industry to make it both affordable, standard and available.
@Gibbo — I don’t think you’re missing anything. The energy industry and experts are still talking about this. The trouble for the car industry and government is the political winds have blown in an anti-scientific direction, and that the man who single-handedly did the most of EVs in all history turned into a MAGA champion for a couple of years. Hence governments are having to pander to a shift in public opinion, and the car industry is having to react to softened consumer demand. (In the most of the West, anyway. China is still going full EV etc).
I see articles every few months extolling how having a massive battery on every other car forecourt could completely change the ‘but it’s intermittent’ narrative about renewables etc.
For example:
https://theconversation.com/two-way-electric-vehicle-charging-at-scale-could-stop-renewable-energy-being-wasted-heres-how-it-works-272373
It’s all happening, but while Barry Blimp has grabbed a handhold back on the loudhailer to moan about Ed Milliband – and the actual US president is rolling back climate treaties and talking about ‘drill baby drill’ – what can we expect? It’s hard to cut through.
This too will pass, if only (sooner) because of the economics or (later) because fossil fuels are finite and/or we’ll melt the ice caps.