Comments on: Utility Scale Electricity Storage Ramps Up with Growing Renewable Energy Use

By: Mark Lively

Mark Lively — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 18:58:00 +0000

I think Bob and Electric 38 can both be accommodated, if we set prices in a way that allows Electric 38 to do his thing and get paid for doing it as well as paying the consequences of his impact on the grid. If we use the grid as a battery, sometimes the value of electricity might be $120/MWH and sometimes it might only be $5/MWH. If Electric 38 stores electricity when the value is $5/MWH and uses it when the value is $120/MWH, Electric 38 should be paying the $115/MWH differential. If Electric 38 has good timing, then the opposite is true and Electric 38 enjoys that differential.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 22:24:00 +0000

Requiring each individual/household/business to be a standalone utility company is not a workable solution. Most people simply don’t want to put out the effort, even if it might save them a few dollars a month (which it probably wouldn’t).

You’d be asking every individual user to not only find a place in the sun to put their solar panels, but also to acquire and maintain storage as well as backup power.

And distributing things ‘thinly’ is not financially efficient.

There’s a certain romance about all of us unplugging from the grid, but it reality, it’s not the best way to get us off of fossil fuels quickly.

What makes sense, to me, is to put some panels on your roof if you live in a place with adequate sun and pay enough for your TOU/high tier electricity. But as a society it makes more sense to put our money into larger scale (roofs of large buildings/parking lot) solar arrays and into other renewable power generation along with enough storage and backup generation to make it all work.

It’s not about putting a meter on our natural resources, it’s about making the most efficient use of our resources to bring power to all at the best price possible.

By: Electric38

Electric38 — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 12:05:00 +0000

We don’t want utility scale operations. We want the average American citizen and small business to be the direct benefactor of the free energy of the sun. Why should we pay an “expensive middleman”?

Get behind the development of solar ink and mass produced solar printing presses that can incorporate the “plug and play” installation technologies that are now coming to market.

Low income, senior and the disabled population need to be first in line for the free energy of the sun. Quit trying to put a meter on our natural resources. The long term positive effect on the economy will be stronger if the entire consumer market is allowed to participate in the fair disbursement of new technologies.

The electric car market becomes much more affordable to the people listed above, if they can use the free energy from our sun for transportation.