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It doesn't. Solar is so cheap now that it makes sense to build huge amounts of it, but most of the existing infra still needs to be in place for times where sol
by Panzer04 2y ago
It doesn't. Solar is so cheap now that it makes sense to build huge amounts of it, but most of the existing infra still needs to be in place for times where solar doesn't generate. We save some money on fuel costs, but those other generators just make a lot more money when solar isn't generating instead.
Battery-backed systems in general are still not really financially justified vs pure solar systems, but the bigger the disparity between dirt cheap daytime energy and super expensive nighttime energy gets, the sooner that will change.
- JoeAltmaier 2y agoAustralia has giant batteries for solar farms, and keeps building more. They think it's financially justified.
- belorn 2y agoIn locations with very predictable weather it makes perfect financially sense. Knowing when supply is high and when it is low makes predicting prices accurate, and the number of recharge cycles each year are fairly guarantied. Add a large amount of subsidies and it makes sense to continue building more of them. Cutting down on subsidies removes a bit of the enthusiasm, but as long the other aspects are true then there is no reason why people would not build more storage when the financial aspects make sense.
- Jensson 2y agoAustralia doesn't have winters with lack of sun and extreme energy requirement to heat homes, that makes solar with batteries viable. In any place with winters that will make solar stop producing for months combined with peak energy demands for those months solar will always just be an extra, storing enough power to last through winter will not happen this century using batteries.
- Panzer04 2y agoMaybe at utility scale? Household batteries are so stupidly overpriced there's no financial justification sadly.