Could billions of little micro solar power plants feed the whole world via our phone lines?

Question

Imagine if everybody had a few solar panels on their roofs, their balconies, their garages. And then imagine them feeding right into the phone network, simply because it's in place already, and people sending electricity to a location that's currently in the dark via the internet.
There, users would light their LED lamps with it (presuming a future now where your average household lamp consumes not 100W, but 3 or something).
Would that work?

Answer 1

No, because phone lines can't handle the kind of current you need to do something meaningful. Besides, if you want to do distributed power, why not have everyone be largely self sufficient and then just dump excess capacity onto the grid or pull off capacity during peak loads (it's a rhetorical question).

You have a creative idea, but sorry it won't fly.

Answer 2

Not an expert, comments only:

- a washing machine, vacuum cleaner, .. needs roughly one kW. An A/C unit/ heat pump 3-5kW. An average US household (not yours) consumes ~ 12kWh a day. i.e. an average of 500W.

All this way above phone line capability. Also phone lines will go away (replaced by fiber optic). Note, the existing "fiber internet" in NJ at this time is only a few % (2- 5%) utilized. Ie. massive fiber laying has created capacity for at least 1.5 decades. What is really needed are fibers into your home. Expect opposition from existing coaxial copper (CATV companies). In short, nothing doing.

- the distribution network for your proposal will be a MAJOR problem. Windmills have already been studied extensively. Result, anything above 15% windmills --of the total electricity consumption in a country-- requires massive investments in "battery storage", "substations", new and denser networks of the medium voltage power lines. For the records, even Denmark will stay for the foreseeable future at their present 17% windmill power (I think that is their number).

- a much better solution MAY in fact be a diesel-turbine in everybody's basement:
1. it creates heat (65% of combustion power is "heat"), 2. can drive the heat pump also for A/C and heat (with an efficiency twice that of a gas furnace), 3. light your home.
Even that solution is NOT the utilities' [who have invested massively in 1Mio V long distance DC transmission lines and Giga Watt power stations] favorite brain child. They will fight this idea 'toe and nail' (PS: Reason, every time you run the generator, they would have to buy your "excess basement electricity" at a large premium, e.g., using the all too successful Danish windmill scheme, at 70% of their retail pricing).

- very similarly, you could install a 10kW fuel cell in your basement. It would run (if high temp ceramic) not on hydrogen, but ethanol. I do not want to get carried away, how, when, how much, But, the efficiency of that would be twice as high as the diesel turbine/ engine (~60%). Also, with ethanol you keep the distribution network (tanker trucks). And no need to remind you, such fuel cell can be installed in cars. Again, I must refrain from singing my song too loudly.

- SOLAR: at this time the energy needed to produce a solar cell is close to what it delivers over its life time. Apart from the economy of solar power operation and the complexity of the network, it is not yet a good idea to mass produce solar cells..

Answer 3

The telephone wiring infrastructure isn't suitable for carrying power, but the existing electrical power grid is. Rooftop solar systems are available and practical in many areas, including the capability of feeding power back into the grid.

Answer 4

The phone network is not meant to distribute power and solar power is not practical as a primary source in most parts of the world due to the weather and daylight hours in the winter.

Answer 5

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Answer 6

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