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Utilities around the US are working in numerous states to get favorable legislation letting them pay a fraction of what they do now for solar and wind energy fe

Utilities around the US are working in numerous states to get favorable legislation letting them pay a fraction of what they do now for solar and wind energy fed back into the grid by residential and commercial customers. Once you even out your meter and reach net generation, any further generation into the grid you'll soon be getting bupkus for. Sorry, but I got better things to do than line the pockets of my state's for-profit utility company. In rural areas, getting connected can mean tens of thousands of dollars...if they even offer it to you at all. No matter where you are, you have to pay a monthly connection fee. It really adds up, and given how cheap solar and wind are now, you don't really get anything for it. Battery storage systems a couple years ago were very expensive, but prices are crashing and safer tech like lithium iron phosphate are becoming more commonplace. Heatpump systems have gotten so efficient that I'm pretty sure my next furnace isn't going to be a furnace, but an electric heatpump. In my area, we lose electricity for a day or so in the winter, 1-3x a season. A year or two ago we were without power for 3 days. Everyone has generators; expensive, noisy/annoying (especially given they conduct a weekly "exercise"), wasteful, polluting, and expensive to maintain. Having at least a large battery backup would mean I don't freeze, I can cook, take a hot shower, do my laundry, and my food doesn't spoil. And I don't need to pay the electric company for a product that just isn't very reliable and is increasingly irrelevant.

PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
> Battery storage systems a couple years ago were very expensive, but prices are crashing and safer tech like lithium iron phosphate are becoming more commonplace. Unless you live in a mild climate and/or have a full Passivhaus-level construction and/or live in a very small building, there are no current batteries that will get you through a winter of heating. I live in New Mexico, have some of the best insolation numbers around (outside of Arizona), generate around 93% of my annual electricity use, including heating (air source heat pumps) from a 6.6kW PV array. A battery system large enough to store my winter needs built with any currently available technology would be completely untenable, both in terms of cost and size. I pay $7.71 as a monthly connection fee, and I get back my excess summer production as "free kW" during the winter, an arrangement I much prefer to being paid directly. The "free kW" are a 1:1 match for my over-production.

PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago

> Battery storage systems a couple years ago were very expensive, but prices are crashing and safer tech like lithium iron phosphate are becoming more commonplace. Unless you live in a mild climate and/or have a full Passivhaus-level construction and/or live in a very small building, there are no current batteries that will get you through a winter of heating. I live in New Mexico, have some of the best insolation numbers around (outside of Arizona), generate around 93% of my annual electricity use, including heating (air source heat pumps) from a 6.6kW PV array. A battery system large enough to store my winter needs built with any currently available technology would be completely untenable, both in terms of cost and size. I pay $7.71 as a monthly connection fee, and I get back my excess summer production as "free kW" during the winter, an arrangement I much prefer to being paid directly. The "free kW" are a 1:1 match for my over-production.