For once, I”m not reading the article, so I can ask:
Is this guy really saying no one uses batteries to store the excess wind/solar power??? Jeez, I just have tiny bits of each, and I store the energy in batteries.
So where I am now, my payback for the solar stuff is about 7 to 8 years, if I add the expense of the batteries to go off the grid it becomes somewhere around 15 to 20 years. Hardly worth the extra expense.
The article is right but not because of residential solar and wind generators, it is because of commercial generators in the large energy companies. These companies have been blackmailed by the Federal Government in several countries to produce a percentage of their total production with “renewable” power such as wind and solar.
Solar and much more so wind energy is much more expensive than fossil fuel produced energy. No, you can’t efficiently store it and if you use batteries the batteries are expensive and have a relatively short life before they need to be replaced.
When looking at a wind farm or PV farm that produce a few Mega Watts compare it to a steam plant that produces thousands of Mega Watts, or Gigawatts if you prefer. The wind and solar comprise many acres of land with thousands of solar cells and perhaps a couple hundred wind generators. The coal or other fossil fuel plant may have a couple generators and require a lot less people to maintain.
Residential users can perhaps use batteries although it is still not cheap and won’t pay for itself until a decade has gone by.
I have such a system, I didn’t do it for the cost savings, I did it for reliability. In Kentucky we have tornadoes and ice storms. Both tear down power lines, but I don’t even notice. Someone has to tell me the power is out because my system automatically switches to battery on loss of grid, my lights and computers don’t even flicker. During the day my solar power is pumped into the battery and my inverters take out what I need and push the rest to the grid where they hold it for me until for some reason I cannot provide my own. I have a lot of battery. The battery is a 48V system but like your car battery is 12V it actually rides a little higher than the 48V nominal. I usually have a non charging resting voltage of about 49.8 - 50V. When my voltage is higher than 52V I ship it off to the grid. My battery is ALWAYS topped off. I have a 16KW generator that runs on natural gas. That was a total waste of money but I got it so that in case of a long winter storm I could re-charge the batteries. It would have to be a really long storm. But worse than that in a SHTF situation where will I get NG?
I average 40KW usage per day, most of that is the air conditioning and heat pump along with the electric dryer. If we go for a month and a half without sun, I’ll start getting worried but I don’t think that will happen.
If anyone wants to know the specs:
11.7KW PV on roof
16KW inverter capacity
3, 48V 1100AH batteries (20 hour rate) (72, 2V cells)
my 1100AH batteries will go a lot longer than 1100 amp hours at a slower rate. At 40KW per day that works out to 1.6AH per hour which on charts dramatically extends the battery life. In the spring and fall without A/C or Heat Pump the life is extended even more. In the middle of hot summer or very cold winter I could easily go to 60KW per day but since I make over 60KW per day on the roof it isn’t a real problem. (11.7KW PV times 5 hours full sun = 58.5KW) While there are only 5 hours here of full sun I start making more than I use around 9 or 10 in the morning and stop around 6 at evening on average, so I actually make more than the 58.5 or 5 hours worth. Unfortunately there are days when I make very little, rainy days still make a little but not as much as I use. Overcast days still produce much more than you would think but it still is less than 11.7KW more like 8 or 9KW
The whole process has been a great learning experience but really irks me when I see someone like the article above that makes so many simple mistakes.
I do not believe this is practical on an industrial scale. Are they really going to build a battery bank big enough to power a city overnight?