“What’s a generously sized solar system put out?”
http://www.we-energies.com/residential/energyeff/active_installdata.htm
If you look at the link I provided in #24 (I think) and again here you can look at the real time data from existing systems.
“Mybe 50 amps at 110v on a sunny day if you’re lucky after it’s inverted, then subtract any usage.”
You need to understand many grid tied systems do not invert to 110v but to 240v.
“then subtract any usage. So what’s left now “
You are right that if only one person on a grid stuffs back in a little solar power it is a drop in the bucket. But if thousands of people during peak demand sunny summer days, make no demands on the gird, but instead feed it with 100KW of power, yes it does make a difference. Don’t forget the difference the lack of demand makes.
“I’m arguing against forcing utilities to pay for power they can’t use so that an uneconomical solar installation can claim to be “green”, “independent”, or a “success story”.”
They can and do use it. The utilities have taken enormous sums of tax dollars, and with that comes responsibility to answer to gov’t and tax payers.
“So now you decide to push 1kw backwards into the system. Does the power company get 5kw back? No, more likely they get 0.2kw because of the same 80% loss in the other direction.”
No! That power is ALREADY distributed. It may not even have to go through a single other transformer before your neighbor consumes it.
“Lack of demand” and “already distributed” is relative to the proximity between you shoving power into the local grid and the closest user who can take advantage of it simultaneously.
You can pick any point on the grid from the power station to the fusebox. There are losses due to transmission and there are losses due to transforming. The closer the two points are, the lower the losses, but they exist.
Unless we’re talking a high density area, even just going to the next house is going to require transforming up to line voltage and back down. That’s the best case, and it assumes that the neighbor actually needs the power at the time. The farther away that power has to go before someone uses it when it’s being produced determines how much would otherwise be used and how much of the total distance is already transmitted.
I can’t even get power 1000’ across my property without a transformer. It’s 1/2 a mile to my closest neighbor and another mile to the neighbor after that.
If thousands of people in area start shoving power back in, then none of them need it when it’s being produced by definition, and it has to go even further to where it can be used. More people on solar actually makes the problem worse.