What if people could buy a storage battery for their home without the need for Solar panels? What if you could buy energy at 25% off a night, store it and use it during the day? Don’t know at what percent the math would work but I could see the electric companies thinking about this. They would not be “losing” a customer to solar. They would not have to buy back solar energy at full retail price. They could lease the battery to a customer at a win-win price.
I have not heard this suggest, but just sayin’
There are a lot of places that don’t get the sun of Arizona, but might make economic sense with this.
Thoughts?
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Have you read anything about the switch to go from utility power to battery?
Would it have a timer based the utility rate change schedule?
Are there delays in switching that could impact sensitive electronic equipment?
Just wondering.
Ik
I have not read anything about the switch to go from util power to battery. Do you mean an “electronic control switch” or the “switch” in approach to the electric grid.
would it have a timer?
well, on a “smart” grid your meter would interact with the electric company, so it would not need a timer. You could imagine all sorts of approaches. You might bid on a spread: you might say I will buy it from you at night and sell it back during the day for 2cents KWH (or whatever), then they can store it in your battery and take it back the next day. Maybe you have a deal where you always juice up at night for 25% off and use it solely for yourself during the day. This could be done for homes or large buildings.
delays in switching?
certainly not, that technology is old as the hills. Many people have a UPS for their home computer for instance.
Obviously SolarCity installs a Solar system and leases it to homeowners to make it affordable over time. Why can’t an electric company just do it with the batteries. The farther north you go, the less sun in the winter, maybe not so good for solar. Maybe Seattle is too rainy to make solar cost efficient but night time battery storage might be.
Just interesting possibilities.