3 ms·

When you factor in storage costs, how do solar and wind compare to alternatives?

Retric 8y ago
Still generally cheaper. People regularly go off grid solar for less than the cost of grid electricity over the lifetime of their system. They save on the grid distribution system and overhead, but lose out on vast economy of scale. Peaking power plants also tend to be more cost effective than large scale grid storage. Having excess capacity also vastly reduces the need to storage. Existing investments complicate the issue, but falling prices for both solar and battery systems regularly change the equation and this shift is only going in one direction.
ufmace 8y ago
We don't know, because we've never built grid-scale energy storage.
epistasis 8y ago
Currently, solar that has 3-4 hours of output at 50% of peak primary solar outbut, is about $35-$40/MWh in Colorado, Nevada, and I think even Indiana had bids in that ballpark. This is between 1/5 to 1/2 the cost of nuclear, depending on who you believe for nuclear's costs. Storing a MWh probably costs around $80-$150 currently. Why so little storage? It's not really needed at the scale of projects that are being planned, and storage gets cheaper every year. So let's say we could start building a nuclear plant and get it done in 10 years (which is highly speculative, but let's give nuclear the benefit of the doubt). What are the costs going to be 10 years from now? Or more importantly, what are costs going to be 30 years from now? Because the storage lasts 10-15 years, so you get to replace it with cheaper tech at that point, whereas with nuclear you've locked in your costs for the next 60 years. This is why no sane entity wants to build nuclear, unless they are ideologically motivated. There are some nuclear startups that may make nuclear cheaper, and less risky to build, but they are still startups without functioning prototypes or manufacturing facilities. By the time they start production, the utility will be ready to replace any batteries that get deployed on the grid today, so one may as well start deploying wind/solar + storage. And add more time of use rate plans so that energy is used efficiently.

Still generally cheaper. People regularly go off grid solar for less than the cost of grid electricity over the lifetime of their system. They save on the grid distribution system and overhead, but lose out on vast economy of scale. Peaking power plants also tend to be more cost effective than large scale grid storage. Having excess capacity also vastly reduces the need to storage. Existing investments complicate the issue, but falling prices for both solar and battery systems regularly change the equation and this shift is only going in one direction.

ufmace 8y ago

We don't know, because we've never built grid-scale energy storage.

epistasis 8y ago

Currently, solar that has 3-4 hours of output at 50% of peak primary solar outbut, is about $35-$40/MWh in Colorado, Nevada, and I think even Indiana had bids in that ballpark. This is between 1/5 to 1/2 the cost of nuclear, depending on who you believe for nuclear's costs. Storing a MWh probably costs around $80-$150 currently. Why so little storage? It's not really needed at the scale of projects that are being planned, and storage gets cheaper every year. So let's say we could start building a nuclear plant and get it done in 10 years (which is highly speculative, but let's give nuclear the benefit of the doubt). What are the costs going to be 10 years from now? Or more importantly, what are costs going to be 30 years from now? Because the storage lasts 10-15 years, so you get to replace it with cheaper tech at that point, whereas with nuclear you've locked in your costs for the next 60 years. This is why no sane entity wants to build nuclear, unless they are ideologically motivated. There are some nuclear startups that may make nuclear cheaper, and less risky to build, but they are still startups without functioning prototypes or manufacturing facilities. By the time they start production, the utility will be ready to replace any batteries that get deployed on the grid today, so one may as well start deploying wind/solar + storage. And add more time of use rate plans so that energy is used efficiently.