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> Storage costs are in freefall because the bulk of the car market about to transition to electric and it's creating economies of scale and spurring a ton of R&
by deeviant 6y ago
> Storage costs are in freefall because the bulk of the car market about to transition to electric and it's creating economies of scale and spurring a ton of R&D which is picking all the low-hanging fruit in battery cost improvements.
That's not true. Utility scale storage is a huge area of interest, has had many advancements in recent past and many of technology paths have absolutely no relation to electric tech or economies of scale.
- AnthonyMouse 6y agoIt is true. Making batteries for electric cars is a large fraction of the storage R&D, and the existence of non-vehicle storage technology development doesn't really change the equation anyway. The question is whether storage gets cheap enough before the cost stops falling, and the answer is we don't know and we need to be prepared in case it doesn't.
- deeviant 6y agoSticking your fingers in your ears and saying, "Ah ha!", does not an argument make. I spent 6 years in the solar industry, working at both a start up and a fully vertically integrated behemoth that manufactured panels and built plants and while I'm no longer in the industry today, I'm confident I am up-to-date on utility-scale storage progress and it is not summed up by, "electric car batteries!"
- AnthonyMouse 6y agoYou're arguing with a straw man. I never claimed storage technologies other than lithium batteries didn't exist. Electric cars continue to be a central example of the relatively recent increase in research into storage technologies. And you still can't extrapolate indefinitely from an exponential curve. We don't know where the floor will be, or whether it will be low enough.