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It's certainly possible and available in some areas, but rare. Mesh and 4G enabled meters are a step in that direction, but the head-end/SCADA in most places would still buckle if it were to happen at scale. At my last fiat job with a big utility we couldn't even get permitted stuff connected in a timely manner, massive solar fields sitting unproductive for years (thanks government subsidies!)
Back-feeding at peak rates would certainly help accelerate amortized recoup of gear, but if you ran the numbers I have no doubt you'd find it would still be a cost, or a risky to break-even investment at best.
There's trillions of dollars chasing any whiff of energy arb that may exist, if you can plug in a panel to arb it, so can industrial scale solar. The real arb is going off-grid completely, but that's still a risky to break-even investment given the duration over which you'd have to amortize it.
That’s generally my perspective too. If Walmart’s roof isn’t covered in solar panels, it’s probably not a great financial decision.
However, it becomes a fairly low cost backup power option under the right conditions.
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backup power option
Yep, money is where my mouth is on this one. Love my solar generator, cost on batteries and panels has come down so much it's no-brainer insurance where I live... even though I'll really get sick looking at how much it cost me in Bitcoin terms several years from now.
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