Well where this has been considered you would sign up, with an agreed strike price (of several dollars per kWh possibly) and an agreed amount. So if you were willing for 30% of your battery to be used you would sign for that. Even 10% times a large number of cars plugged in would help deal with demand peaks. A complete grid collapse is a somewhat different scenario and may end up every EV for themselves but there are still scenarios where the financial rewards might just be worth it. The control problem is significant though.
Less insane that chopping up trees in canada and shipping them to the UK to burn in a power station to claim it's carbon neutral. Right now we need to throw things at the wall and see what sticks IMO. Having healthy cynicism is good as there will be people grant farming, but we wouldn't want to lose the ideas that really would help in specific scenarios.
The issue of each & every residence becoming their own independent power generating entity runs into the likes of Apartments, Condos & "collective housing" complexities, stand-alone "homes" are just a percentage of the totals.
When one calculates the anticipated load according to all the solar panel companies...they invariably "low ball" the capacities. Do yourself an immense favor & put as many solar panels than can fit on your roof...three times, five , twelve times the "recommended" values. It is the generous extra capacities within the "grid" that has kept the lights on...so far.
Don't bother with LI ion battery power either, the fire hazard...I saw the battery backup telephone system long ago while in school...what resembled some ones room size fish-tank was actually a giant wet-cell battery, bus-bars strung along the ceiling the size of railroad rails... So figure on someone building a garage sized wet-cell & a full roof of solar cells.
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When one calculates the anticipated load according to all the solar panel companies...they invariably "low ball" the capacities. Do yourself an immense favor & put as many solar panels than can fit on your roof...three times, five , twelve times the "recommended" values. It is the generous extra capacities within the "grid" that has kept the lights on...so far.
Don't bother with LI ion battery power either, the fire hazard...I saw the battery backup telephone system long ago while in school...what resembled some ones room size fish-tank was actually a giant wet-cell battery, bus-bars strung along the ceiling the size of railroad rails... So figure on someone building a garage sized wet-cell & a full roof of solar cells.
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I won't argue that storage is the big problem and has been for the last 30 or 40 years. An average family house could have enough area for solar to charge a battery that would keep the average EV running for the average commute for maybe 6 months of the year. Right now the economics don't stack up other than for smug value but one day they just might.
Winter is a different problem. Windless and sunless days make renewables somewhat less useful just when power demands are at a peak (at least for places not hotter than hell in the summer). There is no one size fits all solution but there are local things that can help using what is available. I wonder if anyone has worked out how much thermal energy could be extracted from the yellowstone caldera?
Winter is a different problem. Windless and sunless days make renewables somewhat less useful just when power demands are at a peak (at least for places not hotter than hell in the summer). There is no one size fits all solution but there are local things that can help using what is available. I wonder if anyone has worked out how much thermal energy could be extracted from the yellowstone caldera?
Very probably but given the price increase and relative scarcity in continental EU better sale them for their initial use!
The entire island of Iceland is "powered" by geothermal electrical production. I don't think anyone would be comfortable with digging up & wrecking a National park.
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Solar panels on roofs are ugly. Very ugly. For a long time they were banned in my area, but have finally been allowed. It has significantly degraded the appearance of the area.
Rather than being an immense favor, they are an immense eyesore.
How dare someone try to save the planet by disrupting the aesthetic pleasure of a bare roof.
Is Sports Illustrated going ahead with their annual shingles issue?
Is Sports Illustrated going ahead with their annual shingles issue?
Iceland is a special case but shows what can be done. I never suggested digging up the park just wondered if anyone had looked at what could be done.
Creating solar panels that 'double" as roof tiles really isn't rocket science as Elon Musk tried to insinuate. Two tempered nine mm glass plates, 200 mm by 400mm, stack those cheap Chinese made cells inside...maybe the likes of Molex connectors on the edges, a bead of stable silicone around... Solarcity was a racket from the beginning & was doomed to failure because of ineptness. The cells themselves are now dirt cheap, it is all the bracketry that contains the cells which is the problem.
Here in Argentina, for houses, there is a common ceramic roof tile that "locks up" with each other endlessly that is dimensionally unchanged for dozens of years now & companies make them by the millions.
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Here in Argentina, for houses, there is a common ceramic roof tile that "locks up" with each other endlessly that is dimensionally unchanged for dozens of years now & companies make them by the millions.
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Battery power is a marvelous thing when used realistically. I built and electric bicycle recently and it has been a revelation. Music systems, shortwave communications, led lighting and so on.
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There is no point in "saving the planet" if you when you look out your front window and your neighbor's house across the street has changed from being very pleasant to look at to being very ugly.
I guess you haven't studied much architecture, but if you had you would know that the appearance of the roof is an essential component of a pleasing design. Make the roof ugly and the whole house is ugly.
Tell us more about the teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Shingles.
I throw up many times a day when I look at buildings that are not pleasant to my eye. It gets exhausting and I'm constantly dehydrated and hungry 🙁
I have no idea what this comment means or has anything to do with the current discussion.
Apparently you have no real answer to the issue of the ugliness of roofs covered with solar panels. And no appreciation for the impact it would make on the aesthetics of a neighborhood.
People like you are so possessed with "saving the world" that you don't even care about enjoying what we have. It's really a cult mentality that is likely to destroy more than it saves.
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