ELI5/ what is the “duck curve” and net load in solar power? i’m having trouble wrapping my brain around it.
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There are several peaks of power usage on the power grid. You might think that when the sun is shining its brightest is when power demand is at its highest for air conditioning, and businesses are running and so are all their machines of manufacturing and stuff.
That’s sorta true in that it’s a big usage time, but that’s not the whole story. At the end of the business day, people go home. Their homes have been not running the AC for a while for power savings, but must now make up the difference ahead of the occupants arriving. And what do they do? They turn on their electric stove to cook dinner, and their TV or other appliances. Lighting is also useful here since it might start getting dark. This is another peak of power usage during the day, and it’s pretty huge.
So the “duck” curve is because the curve looks sorta like a duck. There’s a slow hump during the day for that main power usage, and then this spike when people get home. The first half is the duck’s body, and then its head.
Unfortunately solar power doesn’t do much for that “head” spike. It does great for the main day usage, but come around 5pm the sun is going down and power consumption is moving from businesses to homes and spiking again. So now you need something else to take the power load, or you need to have stored power from the sun in batteries or something to be released now.
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