Solar farming

[harm_less]

Agreed, from what ive heard about 40% of your power bill goes towards power transmission, I dont know how accurate that is, but if those figures are true, then what on earth are they doing with all our money?
Sounds like its just lining shareholders pockets instead?
As you say, battery costs are coming down increasingly fast, we are at the brink of an energy revolution where we wont be as dependent on the power companies to supply us energy and that should help lower the cost of living for many in the years to come.

I watch alot on the electric viking youtube channel, he has recently covered this in great detail, things to watch for are the price of batteries and solar panels over the next 5 years, as it stands the suppliers are selling them at quite a huge markup, but that could soon change.

The source of The Electric Viking's information lately has been Tony Seba. While TEV's video's are fairly info dense his attention to accuracy is sometimes questionable so for that reason I prefer to go to source.

[nzoomed]

Agreed, from what ive heard about 40% of your power bill goes towards power transmission, I dont know how accurate that is, but if those figures are true, then what on earth are they doing with all our money?
Sounds like its just lining shareholders pockets instead?
As you say, battery costs are coming down increasingly fast, we are at the brink of an energy revolution where we wont be as dependent on the power companies to supply us energy and that should help lower the cost of living for many in the years to come.

I watch alot on the electric viking youtube channel, he has recently covered this in great detail, things to watch for are the price of batteries and solar panels over the next 5 years, as it stands the suppliers are selling them at quite a huge markup, but that could soon change.

The source of The Electric Viking's information lately has been Tony Seba. While TEV's video's are fairly info dense his attention to accuracy is sometimes questionable so for that reason I prefer to go to source.

Yeah, a great deal of his content can be a bit biased at times and clickbaity too, but its interesting to hear nonetheless.
There seems to be a ton of talk about Tony Seba in recent, I dont know alot about him, but it appears he has been forecasting the future on clean energy for some time and has a lot to say on the future of AI and robots, etc.

[harm_less]

It's worth watching Tony Seba's presentations on energy, EVs, food production and other related tech. His predictions seem outrageous on the face of it but it's worth knowing that those predictions which he's been presenting for about a decade now often prove to be conservative if anything which would seem to prove that he knows his stuff.

This is one I watched 6 years ago and has stood the test of time well. It is definitely one that will capture your attention within the first few minutes.

His 'Great Transformation' videos follow the same basic threads but have been bought up to date on various subjects. For example the one on food goes into where precision fermentation is headed.

The video that Electric Viking posted relating to NZ's RUC introduction for EVs was so full of errors it really made me question the other stuff he posts about.

[nzoomed]

Yes it seems Tony has been pretty accurate with many of his predictions.
Alot of the electric vikings content seems to be quite repetitive i find, particularly around new battery developments, mind you my whole news feed has stuff like that almost appearing on a daily basis, when in reality all these solid state batteries are still the best part of a decade away.
Have not seen his video about the RUC yet, makes me wonder what news sources he is using?

[harm_less]

Yes it seems Tony has been pretty accurate with many of his predictions.
Alot of the electric vikings content seems to be quite repetitive i find, particularly around new battery developments, mind you my whole news feed has stuff like that almost appearing on a daily basis, when in reality all these solid state batteries are still the best part of a decade away.
Have not seen his video about the RUC yet, makes me wonder what news sources he is using?

Here you go...

[nzoomed]

Yes it seems Tony has been pretty accurate with many of his predictions.
Alot of the electric vikings content seems to be quite repetitive i find, particularly around new battery developments, mind you my whole news feed has stuff like that almost appearing on a daily basis, when in reality all these solid state batteries are still the best part of a decade away.
Have not seen his video about the RUC yet, makes me wonder what news sources he is using?

Here you go...

lol,so it was Australia's idea this whole time?

[harm_less]

lol,so it was Australia's idea this whole time?

And if RUCs were 0.7c/km EV owners would be dancing in the streets.

[nzoomed]

I wish it was 0.7c per km

[zqwerty]

Electricity prices in France turn negative as renewable energy floods the grid

https://fortune.com/2024/06/16/electrici...-turbines/

[nzoomed]

If only that was the case here! Might happen someday when enough homes get solar installed.

[harm_less]

Electricity prices in France turn negative as renewable energy floods the grid

https://fortune.com/2024/06/16/electrici...-turbines/

Sounds like the same situation as reported in Germany is the earlier posted link. This one is paywalled so can't see the details.

---

If only that was the case here! Might happen someday when enough homes get solar installed.

Grid oversupply is also an issue in Australia due to their >30% of houses having solar operating. They're looking at storage systems, both domestic and utility scale, to derive better use of all that generation.

The French and German cases are likely solvable with more storage to buffer supply demand mismatches. Growing pains as countries increasingly move toward widespread adoption of renewable power generation.

---

And going back to my OP this interview on Kathryn Ryan's Radio NZ show today makes for interesting listening.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programme...ts-consent

[nzoomed]

Electricity prices in France turn negative as renewable energy floods the grid

https://fortune.com/2024/06/16/electrici...-turbines/

Sounds like the same situation as reported in Germany is the earlier posted link. This one is paywalled so can't see the details.

---

If only that was the case here! Might happen someday when enough homes get solar installed.

Grid oversupply is also an issue in Australia due to their >30% of houses having solar operating. They're looking at storage systems, both domestic and utility scale, to derive better use of all that generation.

The French and German cases are likely solvable with more storage to buffer supply demand mismatches. Growing pains as countries increasingly move toward widespread adoption of renewable power generation.

---

And going back to my OP this interview on Kathryn Ryan's Radio NZ show today makes for interesting listening.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programme...ts-consent

Yeah, given enough time, most of these issues will be addressed, growing pains as you say when our grid was never designed for this.
Might even be that we see small battery banks installed on most street corners.

Farming around solar panels is a good option, looks like the northland site will still be able to graze stock around them and they provide shade for the animals.

The solar farm China is building in the Gobi desert looks like its changing the microclimate and allowing  vegetables to be grown around them such as tomatoes.

Will be very interesting to see what the next few years bring.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Why not? Bus stops and train stations in Europe are prime surfaces for green tech in various forms. Seems like an opportunity being ignored.

[harm_less]

Yeah, given enough time, most of these issues will be addressed, growing pains as you say when our grid was never designed for this.
Might even be that we see small battery banks installed on most street corners.

......

Will be very interesting to see what the next few years bring.

Why on street corners? Incentivising battery storage, together with domestic solar, provides the same result but invites people to invest in adding infrastructure resilience which also provides potential economic independence on an individual basis.

---

Why not? Bus stops and train stations in Europe are prime surfaces for green tech in various forms. Seems like an opportunity being ignored.

As the price of PV continues to drop it presents a lot of new opportunities. Cladding, fences, carpark canopies, ...

[nzoomed]

Yeah, given enough time, most of these issues will be addressed, growing pains as you say when our grid was never designed for this.
Might even be that we see small battery banks installed on most street corners.

......

Will be very interesting to see what the next few years bring.

Why on street corners? Incentivising battery storage, together with domestic solar, provides the same result but invites people to invest in adding infrastructure resilience which also provides potential economic independence on an individual basis.

I guess I'm thinking more of load balancing.
Not sure if it's more economic or not, but larger batteries further away from homes may not be as practical as smaller units scattered around suburbs.
As the price comes down, it might not be so much of a barrier.
Prismatic LiFePO4 cells only cost about 50 dollars USD overseas, but they retail here for 6 times the price, even then that's pretty cheap but shows the high margins retailers are charging.

[harm_less]

Why on street corners? Incentivising battery storage, together with domestic solar, provides the same result but invites people to invest in adding infrastructure resilience which also provides potential economic independence on an individual basis.

I guess I'm thinking more of load balancing.
Not sure if it's more economic or not, but larger batteries further away from homes may not be as practical as smaller units scattered around suburbs.
As the price comes down, it might not be so much of a barrier.
Prismatic LiFePO4 cells only cost about 50 dollars USD overseas, but they retail here for 6 times the price, even then that's pretty cheap but shows the high margins retailers are charging.

Things are progressing fast in this sector. Contact has today announced that it will be installing a 100MW/200MWh Tesla grid scale battery at Glenbrook with another planned at Stratford.

My comment on domestic uptake of storage units (static batteries, EVs/V2G) was in regard to not only distribution of storage but more so in the potential cumulative storage capacity of thousands of home batteries and EVs. Considering we have ~80,000 BEVs and 10s of thousands of home batteries that is potentially >5GWh of connected storage potential spread across the country, so perhaps 1 GWh assuming those EVs and batteries offered only 20% of their capacity serving duty as a VPP (virtual power plant). Not an insignificant buffer capacity for the grid.

[nzoomed]

I guess I'm thinking more of load balancing.
Not sure if it's more economic or not, but larger batteries further away from homes may not be as practical as smaller units scattered around suburbs.
As the price comes down, it might not be so much of a barrier.
Prismatic LiFePO4 cells only cost about 50 dollars USD overseas, but they retail here for 6 times the price, even then that's pretty cheap but shows the high margins retailers are charging.

Things are progressing fast in this sector. Contact has today announced that it will be installing a 100MW/200MWh Tesla grid scale battery at Glenbrook with another planned at Stratford.

My comment on domestic uptake of storage units (static batteries, EVs/V2G) was in regard to not only distribution of storage but more so in the potential cumulative storage capacity of thousands of home batteries and EVs. Considering we have ~80,000 BEVs and 10s of thousands of home batteries that is potentially >5GWh of connected storage potential spread across the country, so perhaps 1 GWh assuming those EVs and batteries offered only 20% of their capacity serving duty as a VPP (virtual power plant). Not an insignificant buffer capacity for the grid.

Thats awesome news, those Tesla batteries have proven themselves in Australia, looks like Alice springs is now running almost entirely off solar now too with their recent battery thats installed.
They must be tolerating the heat well over there, I guess they have a decent active cooling system installed.

Oh yes good point, V2G has some good potential. The only issues I see is how and when the vehicles are used and charged. If they are out and about at work during the day and only bought home and plugged in at the evening after the sun has gone down then there might not be much benefit.
They can still act as a grid buffer though if left plugged in and you could charge it with electricity during off peak times and use it during peak hours to save costs if nothing else.

[harm_less]

Things are progressing fast in this sector. Contact has today announced that it will be installing a 100MW/200MWh Tesla grid scale battery at Glenbrook with another planned at Stratford.

My comment on domestic uptake of storage units (static batteries, EVs/V2G) was in regard to not only distribution of storage but more so in the potential cumulative storage capacity of thousands of home batteries and EVs. Considering we have ~80,000 BEVs and 10s of thousands of home batteries that is potentially >5GWh of connected storage potential spread across the country, so perhaps 1 GWh assuming those EVs and batteries offered only 20% of their capacity serving duty as a VPP (virtual power plant). Not an insignificant buffer capacity for the grid.

Thats awesome news, those Tesla batteries have proven themselves in Australia, looks like Alice springs is now running almost entirely off solar now too with their recent battery thats installed.
They must be tolerating the heat well over there, I guess they have a decent active cooling system installed.

Oh yes good point, V2G has some good potential. The only issues I see is how and when the vehicles are used and charged. If they are out and about at work during the day and only bought home and plugged in at the evening after the sun has gone down then there might not be much benefit.
They can still act as a grid buffer though if left plugged in and you could charge it with electricity during off peak times and use it during peak hours to save costs if nothing else.

The logistics and economic opportunities of V2G are well explained in this interview. Personally we have 2 EVs so the Leaf is intended to be used in a V2H capacity when the technology becomes available and viable in NZ. Considering the price of the Leaf was less than for a Tesla Powerwall battery we figured it was worth taking a punt on it as a home energy storage option, with mobility being an added bonus.

[nzoomed]

Thats awesome news, those Tesla batteries have proven themselves in Australia, looks like Alice springs is now running almost entirely off solar now too with their recent battery thats installed.
They must be tolerating the heat well over there, I guess they have a decent active cooling system installed.

Oh yes good point, V2G has some good potential. The only issues I see is how and when the vehicles are used and charged. If they are out and about at work during the day and only bought home and plugged in at the evening after the sun has gone down then there might not be much benefit.
They can still act as a grid buffer though if left plugged in and you could charge it with electricity during off peak times and use it during peak hours to save costs if nothing else.

The logistics and economic opportunities of V2G are well explained in this interview. Personally we have 2 EVs so the Leaf is intended to be used in a V2H capacity when the technology becomes available and viable in NZ. Considering the price of the Leaf was less than for a Tesla Powerwall battery we figured it was worth taking a punt on it as a home energy storage option, with mobility being an added bonus.

Definitely huge potential, only issue currently is that they are not able to be certified to connect to the grid as of yet, ive got a friend who is working with the industry to set standards on this, so expect this to change going forward.

[Waneta]

Wow, it’s fascinating to see how South Taranaki is weighing the benefits of solar development against the traditional dairy industry...