Thread: Grid can go 75% renewable

I think over the next 20 years we’ll just have to get use to our power prices going up 10 fold to deal with this. If the country and or world pin all our hopes on battery tech we’ll forever be stuck in a loop of expensive replacements. And how sustainable or green is it to make all these batteries anyway - and as we need to increase manufacturing capacity about 1000 fold to meet demand if we switch off all fossil fuelled power - where is all the raw material coming from - and electricity to run all of this, and at what cost are we all prepared for $2.00 per KWH? $5.00 per KWH? Their the current predictions for 20 years time - I certainly can’t afford that.

I've seen battery warranties of 10 years being offered pretty widely.
Australia is a leading supplier of lithium and lithium batteries will increasingly be produced here.
Switching to battery backups should cause power prices to fall, not increase, because the local solar will be stored locally, probably in community batteries in local sub-stations, not transmitted over long distances with major transmission losses.

The battery end of life question is one that is often ignored. Tesla has done a clever side step on this one by selling their used batteries to use in a home system. They are now no longer the owner and so not responsible for the recycling of the battery and associated costs

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

I've seen battery warranties of 10 years being offered pretty widely.
Australia is a leading supplier of lithium and lithium batteries will increasingly be produced here.
Switching to battery backups should cause power prices to fall, not increase, because the local solar will be stored locally, probably in community batteries in local sub-stations, not transmitted over long distances with major transmission losses.

Less punters = increased cost.
The infrastructure still needs to be maintained.
More local nodes = more cost

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

I've seen battery warranties of 10 years being offered pretty widely.
Australia is a leading supplier of lithium and lithium batteries will increasingly be produced here.
Switching to battery backups should cause power prices to fall, not increase, because the local solar will be stored locally, probably in community batteries in local sub-stations, not transmitted over long distances with major transmission losses.

Needs to be 30 years then we'll be getting somewhere - would you want to replace a $25K system every 10 years in your house? I sure wouldn't bu these are the sort of things that will see our overall power costs skyrocket in coming years.

Community batteries would not be in individual houses, they would be in local sub-stations, with costs shared. Excess solar generated during the day would keep the batteries charged and they would discharge back into the local networks at night to meet demand.

Decentralised storage would make the grid more resilient and better able to cope with unexpected events, such as the fire and shutdown of the Callide generators yesterday. Callide is nearly worn-out and scheduled to be decommissioned in 2028, so other generation sources have to be created to replace it.

Rather than relying on a small number of centralised generators, the trend is to decentralise generation and storage and move the electricity to where it is needed through interconnected networks.

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

Community batteries would not be in individual houses, they would be in local sub-stations, with costs shared. Excess solar generated during the day would keep the batteries charged and they would discharge back into the local networks at night to meet demand.

Decentralised storage would make the grid more resilient and better able to cope with unexpected events, such as the fire and shutdown of the Callide generators yesterday. Callide is nearly worn-out and scheduled to be decommissioned in 2028, so other generation sources have to be created to replace it.

Rather than relying on a small number of centralised generators, the trend is to decentralise generation and storage and move the electricity to where it is needed through interconnected networks.

That would cost a friggin fortune to operate and make for VERY expensive power - the smaller a set up is the higher the cost per kWh - just one of the reasons centralised systems give us relatively cheap power. I wouldn’t want one near me if it meant I had to sign up to it.

This utopia that DM espouses is so expensive, so unachievable in an established area I’d be moving if they even suggested it.

A community battery just to run the houses on my block would be an entire 1/4 acre at least. That’s 1 battery array every block here. And then you still need the fallback grid to top it up if something goes wrong.

I have a good friend who is entirely off grid. His set up is enormous and still cannot keep up in hot weather. The gen set is always fuelled ready to go!