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Good thing Tesla is making huge battery packs for our homes so we can ditch the grid entirely.

by peppaz 10y ago

DamnYuppie 10y ago
You don't need to wait for Tesla, you can buy Lithium battery packs now. Heck even AGM or wet cell batteries work fine. I have about 800 ampH and I can do pretty much anything I want except run an AC off of it.
- artmageddon 10y ago
  How much did it run?
  - DamnYuppie 10y ago
    Batteries were about $650.
ams6110 10y ago
I think it will never be the case that you can run a household solar/battery plant for less than a utility can do it on massive scale and just run a wire to your house (remember to factor in depreciation on all your household kit, batteries and inverters don't last forever).
- azernik 10y ago
  I think this applies more on the battery side than the solar side. There are certain options for storage that are totally impractical for home use. For example, vanadium redox batteries [1] are so bulky that you probably don't want to put them in expensive residential real estate, but they're pretty cheap and effective. But a mix of residential solar and utility-managed batteries could be viable; it's not clear to me that the economies of scale for large solar installations are very strong. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanadium_redox_battery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanadium_redox_battery
- jackmoore 10y ago
  I think this is true too, but it depends on how efficiently the utility company runs their business, and how much profit margin they are allowed to extract. Utility companies aren't competing directly with each other for the lowest price, so in practice there could be a lot of places where, while less efficient, it's cheaper for home owners to have their own means of power production.
yourapostasy 10y ago
I wish more engineering work would be performed on different chemistries in redox flow batteries. I'd rather spend the capital up front for a much longer-lasting redox flow battery (they are way, way bigger than other batteries, but that's not a concern when you are working with building sites and are willing to put the battery bank underground) than a lithium battery.

Good thing Tesla is making huge battery packs for our homes so we can ditch the grid entirely.

by peppaz 10y ago

Good thing Tesla is making huge battery packs for our homes so we can ditch the grid entirely.

You don't need to wait for Tesla, you can buy Lithium battery packs now. Heck even AGM or wet cell batteries work fine. I have about 800 ampH and I can do pretty much anything I want except run an AC off of it.

artmageddon 10y ago
How much did it run?
- DamnYuppie 10y ago
  Batteries were about $650.

ams6110 10y ago

I think it will never be the case that you can run a household solar/battery plant for less than a utility can do it on massive scale and just run a wire to your house (remember to factor in depreciation on all your household kit, batteries and inverters don't last forever).

azernik 10y ago
I think this applies more on the battery side than the solar side. There are certain options for storage that are totally impractical for home use. For example, vanadium redox batteries [1] are so bulky that you probably don't want to put them in expensive residential real estate, but they're pretty cheap and effective. But a mix of residential solar and utility-managed batteries could be viable; it's not clear to me that the economies of scale for large solar installations are very strong. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanadium_redox_battery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanadium_redox_battery
jackmoore 10y ago
I think this is true too, but it depends on how efficiently the utility company runs their business, and how much profit margin they are allowed to extract. Utility companies aren't competing directly with each other for the lowest price, so in practice there could be a lot of places where, while less efficient, it's cheaper for home owners to have their own means of power production.

yourapostasy 10y ago

I wish more engineering work would be performed on different chemistries in redox flow batteries. I'd rather spend the capital up front for a much longer-lasting redox flow battery (they are way, way bigger than other batteries, but that's not a concern when you are working with building sites and are willing to put the battery bank underground) than a lithium battery.