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Alternative Hypothesis: Large battery banks are uneconomical compared with existing generation mechanisms. Coal/Gas/Hydro are much more efficient and cheaper st
by abakker 12y ago
Alternative Hypothesis: Large battery banks are uneconomical compared with existing generation mechanisms. Coal/Gas/Hydro are much more efficient and cheaper stores of energy than batteries. This is a major factor is not adopting solar much earlier.
The cost of battery maintenance might benefit from some economies of scale, but even if it did, they'd still pass those costs on to the consumers.
- organsnyder 12y agoAbsolutely. But even when/if we get to cost parity, I doubt we'll see utilities scrambling to adopt the new ideas. What's frustrating is that many utilities are actively trying to preserve the status quo through legislative maneuvers.
- abakker 12y agoYeah, that kind of thing sucks. On the other hand, I think some utility providers are investigating alternative battery tech. Look into Vanadium flow batteries as one option. The problems with lead acid and Lithium are better handled by Liquid electrolyte batteries, which can scale better and seem to be much more stable in storage scenarios. The downside is that they can be huge, so they'll never be any good in cars, but might be great in warehouses.