Comments on: German Government May Implement Energy Storage Incentive

By: Germany's Energy Storage Incentive To Start May 1 | CleanTechnica

Germany's Energy Storage Incentive To Start May 1 | CleanTechnica — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 23:57:19 +0000

[…] reported in February, the focus is on battery storage technology for solar PV systems. For year one, €25 million is […]

By: JustSaying

JustSaying — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 20:11:00 +0000

Yes there is loss in charge/discharge cycle. But you put it local micro grid. You load them off peak then peak use keeps dropping. Yes Time-of-day prcing would help. But if Germany is use peak hour to set a Biz rate, like some locations do. THen that biz, puts up panels (eats into the peak) and batteries that they charge at night and use during thier peak and the biz bills go way down.

By: dynamo.joe

dynamo.joe — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 19:24:00 +0000

Still wrong, batteries aren’t 100% efficient. Unless the batteries and Solar sites are co-located (the way it sounds like they are setting things up they won’t be) there will be additional transmission losses.

But these are going to be small effects. Maybe 2-3%?

By: globi

globi — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 12:50:00 +0000

Before you install batteries you need to ‘install’ flexible electricity pricing. At this point electricity is still cheaper at night than at day time for most electricity consumers. As long as this doesn’t change they will continue to run their flexible loads (e.g. electric hot water tank) at night even though it may be wiser to run them at noon.

It simply doesn’t make sense to charge batteries with a loss at noon, just to use expensive battery power to run electric hot water tanks at night.

Unfortunately, German utilities are not interested in flexible electricity pricing, because this would further reduce peak electricity prices (which they make most money with). But they do like it, when German households charge batteries at noon, since this does increase peak electricity prices.

By: Kompulsa

Kompulsa — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 12:10:00 +0000

How does my example show that it is wrong?

I said that twice as many solar panels cost twice as much, however, they generate twice as electricity, therefore, the ratio of cost to electricity generation is the same, which is why the cost per kWh cannot increase.

By: James Wimberley

James Wimberley — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 11:36:00 +0000

“For
those that are unsure about the cost of generating additional solar
power to charge batteries for use at night (i.e more solar panels),
there is actually no net cost (excluding the cost of batteries).”
The example that follows shows that this is wrong. If you have to instal more panels system-wide to charge the batteries, that’s an additional cost on top of the batteries. This is entirely normal. However, there is no reason to think the increase in panels required will be proportional. In the near future in Germany, there will be an increasing number of hours when the combined output of wind and solar exceeds demand. There are holiday homes and offices not running air conditioning on every hot day. The excess would be thrown away without storage.
Note also that batteries can and should also be charged at night from wind and nuclear sources. Germany lags in the smart meters and time-of-day pricing needed to create the right price incentives, but responsible homeowners owning batteries will do it anyway, as it won’t cost them anything.

By: Otis11

Otis11 — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 05:11:00 +0000

Well, here’s to hoping for a battery revolution! Not only would that greatly increase adoption of RE, it would also make the grid more efficient as well as help extend EVs and PHEVs!