If you download that PDF and scroll down to page 8, you’ll see a graph which purports to tell you how much (or from your perspective, how little) battery is needed to back up a solar/wind electric power source. Tony Seba’s trick (if he is indeed its author, rather than simply promoter) is to propose a big-to-enormous overbuilding of solar power capacity. Depending on geography.
According to the theory, less sunlight can be compensated with more solar panels and more batteries, but nowhere in the inhabited world are the quantities of solar and wind prohibitive.
Again, the definition of “prohibitive” depends on the price of the solar panels and the price of the batteries - and according to Wright’s Law as Seba interprets it, time and mass production of such will drive the prices down into the “not prohibitive” range.
Tony Seba’s bottom line is that “going green” will be less expensive than continuing to rely on steam power for electrical power generation. I don’t have his supporting numbers, and I can’t check his work. But it is, at the very least, an interesting thesis.
EV policy is about saving the planet as much as CoupFlu policy is about protecting public health.
Whatever the new battery tech is, it won’t be cheap.
Cheap won’t impoverish the middle class, which is Deep State’s goal.
Wondering about longevity and durability.
That and additional transmission infrastructure.
One can ‘brute-force’ solar by overbuilding by roughly 15 fold. That way, if you have a string of very bad days with your panels only producing about 15% to 20% of rated output, you still have enough to get through those days and store enough for night time. So you only need enough batteries for worst-case night time conditions (i.e., winter solstice).
Of course overbuilding by 15-fold means that you generate at least 10 times more than you use, so you have huge chunks of huge solar farms that are idle 90% plus of the time.
The other option is work on the load side of things, and that way you might only have to overbuild 5 to 10 fold to minimize batteries. Basically, you force users to minimize power usage during worst-case conditions, which would, of course be done remotely. The main loads would include heaters, AC, water heaters, and EV charging - this is easily done by remote control over thermostats and cut-offs for EVs. With those big loads out of the way, most other loads could likely be accommodated without further intrusive measures.
From what I see, they’re working hardest on the load side, as that will help them out regardless of where power generation goes.
Green is the color of the death of the free world.
The only way solar or wind with batteries works efficiently is if you do it yourself (or have a professional do it for you). That's why my home solar has provided 81% of all the power we needed in the past 12 months, including charging the EV. I have a vested interested in making sure MY system works for ME. Bureaucrats don't have that motivation because it's not THEIR system working for THEIR benefit.
This is the “we need to destroy Earth in order to save it!”
I just hate ugly solar cells and windmills. Now add to it massive batteries! What a waste of resources!
The main problem - solar density is not that great, wind is not that big, to satisfy our energy needs. Massive buildup in solar and wind will use both fields and nature reserves, kill wildlife. Make massive mines. Just the opposite to green!
As long as we have enough fossil fuels we are OK. Nuclear power can last us millennia!
And sometimes in the future, we will solve the nuclear fusion problem and get almost unlimited power sources from them. After that some other energy sources will be developed!
People will look with horrors on the way greens destroyed the planet in early 21st century!
Steam has powered America for a long time and works quite well. (nuclear, coal, nat gas.. all produce heat to make steam)
Solar is getting cheaper, my latest panels are very nice 100watt panels and were 58.99/each with free ship at Amazon.
I have a lot of 100Ah LiFePO4 batteries.. in fact I have overbuilt. I am building my own charge regulators so I will
know how to repair them if the need arises... and I have plenty of replacement mosfets for them.
I will get an EV when the batteries don’t burst into flames. IMO only a hybrid makes any sense as I wouldn’t want to be stuck out with no way to charge the batteries or get stuck in a snow bank with no heat...
Small, cheap, SAFE EVs make sense in a dense urban environment but would be a bit problematic in rural areas.
The communist chinese make 97% of the solar cells.
Using slave labor is as cheap as the cells will get.
Sir/mam.... there is not a fiber in my body that cares about EVs or all things Green.
The entire thing is a scam to steal money from one group and make another group rich.
The moment anything has attached to it....tax incentives/rebates/deductions/credit/etc/etc...that means that the government is stepping in to tilt the scales to their preferred entity.
Batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, turbine blades....all toxic, all junk.
Yes, I know folk have been using solar for years. Good on them. They don’t deserve a break on their taxes because of it any more than someone buying an F150 with an EcoBoost engine.
You want EVs and believe in the gospel of...one day EVs will do this, that and the other thing...fine. Enjoy yourself.
Without the taxpayer all of it is a fantasy. Even the Wall St investors, invest knowing that the clowns in DC are all in and a bailout will be coming their way.
So, who gets screwed, again? The middle and working class.