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AES just landed an even bigger battery storage deal in Hawaii: http://www.utilitydive.com/news/hawaii-co-op-signs-deal-for-solarstorage-project-at-11kwh http:/

AES just landed an even bigger battery storage deal in Hawaii: http://www.utilitydive.com/news/hawaii-co-op-signs-deal-for-solarstorage-project-at-11kwh http://www.utilitydive.com/news/hawaii-co-op-signs-deal-for-... In California and Hawaii these storage projects will mostly be used in tandem with intermittent renewables. But batteries can convert any slowly-adjustable (or non-adjustable) electricity source into serving daily peaks. If nuclear plants could store some of their low-value output at 3 AM to serve the early evening demand peak around 6 PM, for example, it could increase the revenue they get from the same number of megawatt-hours. At today's storage prices that sort of electricity arbitrage isn't profitable but if storage gets cheap it will have broad impacts on the engineering and economics of electricity systems. It's not just about enabling higher renewable penetration, though that will be a big story too.

walrus01 10y ago
It's worth mentioning that grid power to the consumer is something like $0.36/kWh in Hawaii right now, which makes off grid PV with even old shitty AGM lead acid battery technology more economical.
- sk5t 10y ago
  Refrigerators aside, isn't home electricity usage pretty low in Hawaii?
  - walrus01 10y ago
    For heating, yeah, but not for air conditioning and other stuff...
- toomuchtodo 10y ago
  That's sort of the way these things go. First, Tesla, AES and others deploy to the most expensive power markets (islands mostly, or anywhere diesel is the primary generation technology for electricity; but also locations where expensive natural gas peaker plants are used). Then, more batteries are made. As more are made, they get cheaper. This allows for even more batteries to be installed. My prediction is you'll see the demise of any sort of combustion fuel for electrical grid generation in the next 10-15 years. Batteries (tens of GWs of production are coming online; the scale is truly massive) will simply keep getting cheaper at the same time solar and wind do. Nuclear is probably going to die too unfortunately; its too costly and doesn't get paid for its zero carbon footprint (the solution there would be to use targeted EV credits to increase the uptake of electric vehicles in certain markets, shifting dollars from petrol consumption to night time nuclear consumption; I can get power for $0.01/kwh between midnight at 6am from ComEd in Northern Illinois from their merchant nuclear fleet, which is the ideal time to charge your EV).

walrus01 10y ago

It's worth mentioning that grid power to the consumer is something like $0.36/kWh in Hawaii right now, which makes off grid PV with even old shitty AGM lead acid battery technology more economical.

sk5t 10y ago
Refrigerators aside, isn't home electricity usage pretty low in Hawaii?
- walrus01 10y ago
  For heating, yeah, but not for air conditioning and other stuff...
toomuchtodo 10y ago
That's sort of the way these things go. First, Tesla, AES and others deploy to the most expensive power markets (islands mostly, or anywhere diesel is the primary generation technology for electricity; but also locations where expensive natural gas peaker plants are used). Then, more batteries are made. As more are made, they get cheaper. This allows for even more batteries to be installed. My prediction is you'll see the demise of any sort of combustion fuel for electrical grid generation in the next 10-15 years. Batteries (tens of GWs of production are coming online; the scale is truly massive) will simply keep getting cheaper at the same time solar and wind do. Nuclear is probably going to die too unfortunately; its too costly and doesn't get paid for its zero carbon footprint (the solution there would be to use targeted EV credits to increase the uptake of electric vehicles in certain markets, shifting dollars from petrol consumption to night time nuclear consumption; I can get power for $0.01/kwh between midnight at 6am from ComEd in Northern Illinois from their merchant nuclear fleet, which is the ideal time to charge your EV).