this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2026
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I mean, it makes sense to me that consumers can't be pumping energy into the grid with no way to cut it off, but I'm not a lineman or some sort of civil engineer or whatever.
But if I were a lawmaker, I'd be on the phone with the Germans, who have 1.2M of these connected, and figuring out if and how they're doing it safely. But lawmakers seem to be somehow incapable of reaching out to people who know fuck all about anything.
The microinverters stop feeding in if grid goes down. So it's safe.
Assuming its not cheap piece of crap that isn't UL listed and that's where the problem is.
Hmmm, I wonder how this would affect things in the future where this is widely used.
I.E. if you had both widespread solar usage and some kind of large blackout, would it be hard to get all your solar back online because it's all in the "waiting for the grid" state? And the grid can't come back at capacity because all the solar it's expecting is out?
I assume people smarter than me have this figured out, but just a random thought if anyone knows more.
Not just solar - most grid-scale generators have this problem. "Black start" is the search term you want to look for, and Practical Engineering has a good video on the subject.
Basically, only a relative few grid generators are actually capable of black starts. The rest need the grid to be already functioning before they can tie in and start producing.
You turn on parts of the grid at a time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_start
Yes, starting up a downed grid is a difficult problem. Recovering from a large scale failure could take weeks. Longer, with blown transformers.
They are commonly used in many parts of Europe.
If you drop some Tariff percentages, we might be willing to advise.
In the US, reaching out to other countries for advice, even if they're our allies, seems to be viewed as treason. At a minimum, seems like treason against "real" masculinity, on which American culture is fueled, especially now.
'Why don't you just stop to ask for directions?'
'I know where I'm going!!1!1111!1!!!!1!'
🙄
I had a chat about this with a friend who works for the national grid (UK).
Apparently the problem is keeping the grid balanced and stable. Basically, the grid struggles to react fast, so they plan ahead. Things like large scale solar can provide predictions on output. Home solar can't.
When clouds pass over an area it can cause slumps and surges in the local grid. The more home solar, the worse it gets. The current grid is designed to work top down, with predictable changes in demand. It needs upgrading to deal with large scale bidirectional flows.
The plug in units are (potentially) even more ropey. If used properly, they are no worse than normal home solar. Unfortunately, being cheaper, there are worries over the microinverters not shutting down. Either due to the manufacturer cheaping out, or turning on an "off grid" mode.
There are also worries about overloading household circuits. Back feeding bypasses the household circuit breakers and RCDs. They could overload wall wiring and cause fires, or stop an RCD tripping, allowing for a person to be shocked.
I don't know how much this would apply to the American Grid, but I would imagine it would be worse. Your grid is older and larger. You also use 120VAC which makes the current overload issue a lot worse.
Ugh, not Germany. Try the Netherlands. In Germany it is a huge bureaucratic undertaking to put energy back into the grid. In the Netherlands (as far as I know) your meter just runs backwards and at the end of the year you just pay the difference or nothing if it's lower than the year before.
In Germany your electricity provider pays you for what you put back into the grid. But not as much as pulling out is worth. That's why almost all solar solutions in Germany are either small or need a battery because using the energy yourself is worth more than sharing it with everyone.
There are people in the Netherlands that have the system you describe. This is pretty rare though due to the massive push for new energy meters that's been going on for the last 10 years or so. And with good reason: lots of the old meters people had were pretty unsafe and unreliable. For most people, having automatic usage reports going to both them and the electricity provider far outweighs the downsides.
Most of us are in a similar situation as Germany. We have smart meters that allow you to provide power back to the grid and this is currently very profitable. However, from 2027 onwards they are (mostly) getting rid of the profits this brings the consumer, in order to make the grid more stable and also for other, less clear (most likely energy company and government spending related) reasons.
As someone who's worked in the grid provider field for a bit I'm not necessarily against this change; peak power surges due to lots of people selling of their excess solar power production is a huge problem that's making the energy transition that much more difficult. Even in local grids, we're starting to have to use massive power cables to be able to handle this. This brings with it a lot of extra costs and permit nonsense, making the life of the grid manager that much more difficult.
I wish people would take this upcoming deadline to start electrying more things in their house. But if my parents are anything to go by, all they'll do is complain about losing their golden goose that they've profited from for over 10 years. They could get an electric car instead of their nonsense plug-in hybrid, they could electrify their heating needs, they could install a home battery and so much more. I know it costs money to do so but you basically run all of it for free most of the year. And besides that, with all the current global issues that are going on the reliance on fossil fuels should be phased out rapidly.