SmartPower & SmartHomes

Friday, May 1, 2015

A Tesla in Every Garage!

Tesla Motors promotes the new "PowerWall" Lithium Battery System

Not so quick! Not the car, the battery!
But can't you just visualize one of those sexy-cool looking Tesla Lithium Battery packs on your garage wall? Well, I can. The "PowerWall" as it's being marketed by Tesla Motors may just be the missing link to sleek, maintenance free battery backup power for your home or business. As remarked on www.TeslaMotors.com, "Current generation home batteries are bulky, expensive to install and expensive to maintain. In contrast, Powerwall’s lithium ion battery inherits Tesla’s proven automotive battery technology to power your home safely and economically. Completely automated, it installs easily and requires no maintenance."

It's true, the 7kWh and 10kWH capacities of the PowerWall system won't make a fan of AGM or Flooded batteries jump for joy. However, you have to admit the idea of a $3,500 10kWh Lithium battery system, not including installation, isn't too shabby. Remember when VHS recorders first came out? I sure do. I think I paid over $850 for mine. Today, your can purchase a feature laden DVD player for under $100. Not that we'll see a comparable price reduction on that scale, but the odds are over time we'll see prices drop as production kicks into gear and "lithium battery" begins to trend. Consumers who have already made a decision to implement renewable energy self generation systems, have a new player on the scene to consider for battery backup power. What did Bill Gates say, something about a vision of seeing " . . .a computer in every home". Hmmmm, now Elon has a vision of a lithium battery system in every home.

Thinking out of the box, Tesla is also targeting utilities. From a broad perspective the implications for public utility companies are mixed. Batteries could represent an impending threat to the status-quo. Presently, as Liam Denning wrote in a recent Wall Street Journal article, "the grid and power stations are the battery, providing power on demand. When that demand shifts to a customer-controlled battery, the utility sells less electricity." However, with peaking demand for renewable energy systems and falling solar equipment prices, utilities are jumping on the band wagon with the addition of renewables in their portfolios. As Liam noted, regarding utilities, "their instinct is often to slow the adoption of distributed energy—for example, in the form of special charges for solar-panel owners—this is politically difficult. And, over time, it actually encourages grid defection."

I had to read Liam's last statement over a again. And when I did, what jumped out at me was a phrase I hadn't come across before. "Grid Defection". That sure sounds like an an exit stage right to renewables with battery back-up to me. Or the contrary, with utilities embracing and integrating battery storage capacity into the utility grid as Southern California Edison has contracted to do. Here's the progress so far.

Southern California Edison

Edison International is proud of its efforts to help create a market for battery storage systems and its work with Tesla to bring this technology to customers. Southern California Edison (SCE), the regulated utility subsidiary of Edison International, has developed the nation's largest battery storage system and has contracts in place for an additional 264 megawatts of storage, including projects using Tesla batteries. SCE is working with Tesla on three demonstration projects that can help drive down the cost of battery storage systems for residential and business customers, as well as EV drivers. These demand response demonstration projects will test communication capabilities and explore rebates to customers who allow SCE to manage their battery charging in order to increase the use of renewable energy while ensuring continued grid reliability.

SoCore Energy, a subsidiary of Edison Energy, which is Edison International's portfolio of competitive businesses and equity interests in emerging companies, is working with a client to design and install Tesla batteries at two of their retail properties in Southern California. The sites will feature Tesla battery units that will be charged with electricity from the grid during nonpeak hours at night. The two battery systems will be able to store up to 400 kilowatts and 600 kilowatts, respectively. SoCore Energy is working with its client to identify additional locations for potential battery installations. SoCore Energy is not the same company as Southern California Edison, the utility, and SoCore Energy is not regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission.

Ok, so here's the plan, a.k.a. "dream". Save up and grab the 10kWh PowerWall first and then move up to the Model S! Yeah that's it! I can see it now.

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Solar kWh Costs - News Archive

Having recently seen single module PV prices dropping to a low of $0.60/Watt, it's no surprise to also see associated solar electric kWh costs plummet.

Searching through online archives we find a related article posted February 12, 2014 on www.Energy.Gov, by Erin R. Pierce, "The U.S. solar industry is growing at a record-breaking pace, while becoming more affordable and accessible than ever before. The industry’s forward progress comes in part thanks to support from the Energy Department’s SunShot Initiative.

Set up in 2011 to re-establish U.S. leadership in the solar marketplace, SunShot partners with industry, universities, local communities and the Department’s National Laboratories to aggressively drive down the cost of solar-powered electricity generation across America.

To achieve this goal, SunShot works to lower the price of solar electricity to $0.06 per kilowatt hour (KWh) -- a cost target that will make solar-generated power to be fully cost-competitive with traditional energy sources by the end of the decade."

Fast forward to 2015 and we read of a recent study by the Berlin-based Agora Energiewende, a leading German think tank. The lead author, and renewable energy specialist Daniel Fuerstenwerth says that one of the reasons for the study was the lack of recognition among policy makers and advisors about future cost falls in solar PV, and official forecasts which continued to downplay the potential role of the technology.

He goes on to say that "the cost reduction potential of large scale solar is still misunderstood, and predicts that solar PV will be the cheapest form of power within a decade, and cost less than $US0.02/kWh by 2050."

Originally published in RenewEconomy, we further read from the Angora report that “Our results indicate that solar power will become the cheapest source of electricity in many regions of the world, reaching costs of between Euro 1.6 and 3.7c/kWh in India and the Mena region (Middle East and North Africa) by 2050.

Cost competitiveness, we're told, with large scale conventional power plants will be reached in these regions already within the next decade, at a cost for solar power by 2025 ranging between 3.3 and 5.4 ct/kWh.

The article places emphasis on the fact that, "in UAE for instance, solar is already cost competitive, with a tender for 200MW of solar going at less than $US0.06/kWh, less than the prevailing cost of gas-fired generation at $US0.09/kwh."