The Other Big News Of The Past Few Days
With the election hogging the news, some things haven’t been given full coverage by the media.
One is Elon Musks idea of the Powerwall, which is a battery storage device for electricity, described in this article in the Guardian and another piece on uSwitch.
This may all look like an expensive toy or gimmick perhaps with a few specialist applications, but I believe it is a technology that could become commonplace in the future.
The flow is with this device and as my trip on a battery-assisted train at Manningtree showed, btteries are no longer something to power milk-floats.
Using a battery in a modern energy-efficient home or business, which perhaps has a roof covered in solar panels is an interesting way of cutting out paid-for electricity, for a hopefully one-off purchase and installation payment.
I wouldn’t buy one now, as although the Powerwall is deliverable now, improvements in battery and solar panel technology will mean that the systems available in a few years will store and generate more electricity in a more affordable manner. I also suspect, we’ll see replacement window glass units, that can either let light through or capture it for electricity.
We will also see much better control systems, although I suspect the the one Powerwall has is pretty sophisticated.
So I’m hanging back now, but I will be looking to put solar panels on my flat roof in anticipation of these better storage systems.
Musk is right, when he says that energy storage is going to revolutionise the world. But I do think that there will be a host of better or improved ways to do it.
But there is work to do, as this image of south-facing roofs in Ipswich shows, solar panels are notable by their absence.
No Solar Panels
In a few years time, this image will show lots of solar panels.
It is another case of giving the engineers the money to finish the deveopment and householders the right sort of finance for installation, so everybody can realise the dream of a house that doesn’t use any paid-for electricity.
The Anonymous Widower 
It isn’t a new idea, there are companies already offering similar systems in the UK. The big news is that he has the money to build a large plant to manufacture the batteries in volume to make them available at a reasonable price (in time). I will might think about buying one, as the whole idea interests me. At present I understand his system is planned to cost £3,000 (plus VAT?) to store 30p of electricity (3kWh), but it is possible to link a number of units together to add capacity. So if my PVs on a reasonable day generate 16kWh, then I will need to spend £12,000 (plus VAT?) to store it. I could of course use them to store electricity at night at half price and use it during the day, but 3kWh doesn’t go far and I only save 15p per day <£55 a year per £3,000 invested. It would take over 54 years to recover the cost (assuming the batteries last that long, which would be incredible). If invested my £3,000 would be worth over £126,000 in 54 years, but it will need a major medical breakthrough for me to get the benefit.
Comment by John Wright | May 9, 2015 |
I’ll agree with what you say! But as the price comes down and domestic appliances get more energy efficient, the day when I install a system is coming closer.
Comment by AnonW | May 9, 2015 |