flacaltenn
Diamond Member
People haven't seen the real costs of trying to force higher percentages of unreliably spikey "renewable" power onto the electrical grid. Germany passed the tilting point long ago and is now swimming in deepening system and customer costs.
This is an embarrassing propaganda version of the news from my own IEEE.
A little math there shows that the investment in JUST THE BATTERIES ALONE will be about $15Bill.. With facilities, and staff and land acq -- Cali's looking at probably $25Bill just to store the equivalent of about 200 windmills for 6.5 hours.
What does a massive renewable battery storage look like?
Mind you this is 36 times SMALLER than what Cali wants to buy.. And here it is..
All $500Mill of it..
It DOES look VERY ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY and COST EFFECTIVE --- Don't it?
This is an embarrassing propaganda version of the news from my own IEEE.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/renewables/californias-firstinnation-energy-storage-man
California has adopted the United States' first energy storage mandate, requiring the state's three major power companies to have 1325 MW of electricity storage capacity in place by the end of 2020, and 200 MW by the end of next year. The new rule issued by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) will be key to implementation of the state's ambitious renewable portfolio rules, which calls for 33 percent of delivered electricity to come from renewable sources by 2020 and virtually guarantees that California, along with Germany, will remain in the world vanguard of those aggressively building out wind and solar.
Though the new rule was adopted by the five CPUC commissioners unanimously, two expressed concerns about the strorage mandate's being achieved at reasonable cost to consumers, especially as large pumped storage (hydraulic) facilities do not qualify. There are a wide range of technologies that do qualify, including batteries and flywheels, but costs are generally high. Pike Research has concluded that the United States as a whole could have as much as 14 GW of electrical storage by 2022, but only if storage costs come down to the vicinity of to about $700-$750 kilowatts per hour.
A little math there shows that the investment in JUST THE BATTERIES ALONE will be about $15Bill.. With facilities, and staff and land acq -- Cali's looking at probably $25Bill just to store the equivalent of about 200 windmills for 6.5 hours.
What does a massive renewable battery storage look like?
China Sets New Record For Renewable Energy Storage - Forbes
The Chinese electric car and battery maker finished the 36 megawatt-hours storage farm in December for the State Grid Corporation of China, a transmission company with a massive plan to pair storage with wind and solar power plants, said Micheal Austin, vice president of BYD America on Tuesday. BYDs batteries will help to store electricity from the first phase of the plan, which includes 100 megawatts of wind and 40 megawatts of solar energy systems in the northern province of Hebei.
State Grid has told BYD that it wants to expand the plan to include 500 megawatts of wind and 100 megawatts solar and build 110 megawatts of storage to bank some of the renewable energy and discharge it when needed, Austin said. Wind, in particular, tends to blow stronger at night, when electricity demand is lower, making it desirable to store it for later use.
At 36 megawatt-hours, BYDs project is the largest in physical size and energy capacity for
lithium-ion battery storage. At its peak charging and discharging speed, the batteries can deliver 20 megawatts of power in one hour and 45 minutes, Austin said. But State Grid commissioned the system to discharge power more slowly, over 4 to 6 hours, he added.
Mind you this is 36 times SMALLER than what Cali wants to buy.. And here it is..

All $500Mill of it..
China & BYD Launch Largest Battery Energy Storage Station in World | CleanTechnica
BYDs battery energy storage system provides a solution for the realization of energy storage in the smart grid that improves renewable energy efficiency by 5%-10%.
BYD provided energy storage batteries in arrays larger than a football field for the project and state that the entire project is worth over $500 million USD.
This State Grid project demonstrates a solution and will be the model of development for Chinas new energy resources, Xiu Binglin, Deputy Director of the National Energy Administration, said.
It DOES look VERY ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY and COST EFFECTIVE --- Don't it?