America's grid battery revolution.

In Texas one big factor was the winter freeze of 2021. The governor blamed it on renewables not doing as advertised,when a report came out that most energy the state had during that time were renewables. The reason was gas lines broke cutting service to millions.

I plan to retire at 62 in another country outside the US that is free, safe and very cheap with a high quality of life. I could fully just rely on only my SS if I wanted to when that times arrives but I'll also have at least one pension, a 403 (b) and a very prolific lnvestment account with my Abby Joseph Cohen my FA. Retiring comfortably in the US these days is almost impossible.

Regarding solar, wind and battery storage in Texas, it is 100% that installing it is profitable. It's probably the best indication that the transition is actually going to happen because policy here is not driven by what is best for the environment.

Didn’t notice you mention one of the great benefits of grid-level battery storage…quickly supplanting the need for peaker plants which could be dirty. Even if filled with non-renewable excess power, they may be filled from more efficient sources (ie. cleaner) avoiding inefficient peaker plants. Proud of the revolution in my Texas home!

At the school district that I work A private company installed huge parking lot solar canopies and they've recently installed huge Tesla storage batteries to back up the grid.

Oil subsidies are at $US 9.000.000.000.000. (International Monetary Fund Numbers). So, instead of co2 pricing, why not remove the subsidies? This is more than $US 1.000 for every human on earth!

Thank you very much for your work sir. Politicians should have a listen

Very true! In addition to the lobbying issue, if oil subsidies were eliminated and the playing field was leveled, we wouldn't be having this discussion at all.

Glad to hear all this news. I didn't realize battery storage was going so well

Just a reminder to those in the US, until 2030 you can get a tax credit of 30% on home battery installations. The credit is non-refundable, i.e. you can only use it to reduce your tax, not get it in cash. You should also check to see if there are credits or low interest loans available at the state level or from your utility.

This so encouraging. Love these updates.

This is great news. And will only get better as more LFP battery production expands, and then even more as the even cheaper Sodium ion batteries become more ubiquitous.

Switzerland is starting to utilise electric car battery capacity to store excess generated power and return it back a off peak times. One advantage is that the batteries in most cars, most of the time are sitting doing nothing.

I work in Software for Powin Energy. We are building some of the worlds biggest battery systems in the USA, AU and Europe. Most lithium based systems are designed to provide power for 2-4 hours. The industry is getting good at spreading out renewable power over the day with these systems. Long term energy storage for seasonal usage is still a bit away.

Storage is agnostic as to source. So as solar and wind is installed the arbitrage advantage will flip. That will accelerate the decline of fossil fuels as that happens. That is what California has shown and what some of the Texas plants are staring to show. Storage in near Urban areas are very susceptible consumer solar and associated VPPs so that part of the IRA will begin to play out more and more.

Thanks for updating me & everyone else.

In Spain we have lots of molten salt storage, and much more could be installes. No need to import costly solutions.

Well here's a daft idea:- Subsidised EV connection points at work places, shopping centres etc so that they can absorb the middle of the day glut of solar. If you have solar at home what you feed into the grid is deducted from what is put back into your car at work. Then when you drive home reconnect your vehicle to grid car and use it to reduce the peak load demand in the evening / over night. That way you are reducing the cost to the consumer and the number of batteries they need to buy. So daft it might just work.

Plug in batteries are now starting to get to market in Europe. you just plug in the battery into a standard socket, connect a app and you are done. Power in/output is limited to 800W with a capacity of 2.5kwh. But these things mean no planning permits, and electricians install etc. and ppl can backup their own solar really easy. Prices are close to a tipping point. So where home solar really took off first now these home batteries can be installed in a day. If all homes with solar would install such small battery it adds up to a massive capacity. And because it is local it reduces the stress on the grid.

In Australia, we're having a hamfisted go at a pumped hydro scheme, called Snowy 2.0, that is meant to have a 2GW capacity, for 16 hours. However, the tunnel boring machine for the headrace is stuck in some soft, then some hard rock, so we're now behind by 2 years, and overbudget maybe 4 x with it. This is throwing the whole idea of pumped hydro in Australia into doubt (mainly driven by the RW shock jocks and usual Murdoch & adjacent filth-spewers), even tho we have over 60,000 potential and feasible sites for projects, small and large. Even if only 20% of these were developed, by the time the big batteries we are installing have reached the end of their service lives, we'd have peak power storage for half a century or more.