“Solar makes a lot of sense if you are living in a desert like the Aussies.
“But to be useful you really need battery storage which are about $10K....”
The battery storage devices are called electric vehicles.
And there are some of you that were wondering where the electricity to charge the electric vehicles was going to come from.
Ford will allow your EV truck to power your house.
The brits have a better idea. Since people here cannot be bothered to open a look and read and comprehend a skill seriously lacking here I’ll do the heavy lifting here are the key points.
“grid-connected pilot project near Manchester — is able to store huge amounts of power for months at a time in any location, and at a far cheaper price than any other energy-storage system....
For a 100MW system, we are already touching [a levelized cost of storage (LCOS) of] $100 per MWh....
By comparison, a new pumped-hydro plant would have an LCOS of $152-198 per MWh, with a comparable lithium-ion system costing $285-581/MWh, according to analyst Lazard.....
With a new gas-peaker plant having a levelized cost of energy of $156-210/MWh, and wind power at $30-60/MWh (according to Lazard), it may already cheaper to balance the grid using wind-powered liquid-air storage than fossil-fuel technology. ...
THIS IS THE BIG POINT>>>>>
And if the LAES system is “charged” using wind power that would otherwise be curtailed, the wholesale price of that power would be close to zero.
“
The same would apply to curtailed solar the cost of curtailed power is effectively zero since it is use it or lose it. The true cost is distribution tariff and capx over the lifetime of the asset both of which are small under one cent per kwh for capx and depending on the power regulation in who owns the lines the distribution tariff. In Texas the commercial oncor tariff is 2.6 cents kwh you can make massive amounts of stored power or H2 for $26 mwh in electron costs.
“The battery storage devices are called electric vehicles.”
Good point. A family with solar power on the roof and an EV in the garage can be entirely energy self-reliant.
That is a future that conservatives should be dreaming about