[clug] OT: Solar power recommendations and advice

[Kevin Pulo]

On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 09:44:42AM +1000, Alex Satrapa wrote:

> With the prominence of the Presidio, Texas energy storage scheme, I
> wouldn't be surprised to find people here in Australia talking about
> it soon, especially with the imminent arrival of the "smart grid".
> We'll be able to charge our batteries using really cheap off-peak
> electricity and discharge into the grid at highest peak cost, and
> make money by literally doing nothing (except living with a tonne of
> sodium salt or vanadium redox battery in the back yard).

Except that by doing so, you'll drive the price differential down to
zero.  Not that that's a bad thing - off-peak power exists as an
incentive for people to invest in exactly this sort of thing, eg.
off-peak electric water heaters do this (sortof) on a tiny scale.
Just don't expect to make money from it forever, particularly if it
catches on (and since it's so great, that's to be expected)...  But at
least then power generation could be at a more efficient constant
rate, with the batteries levelling out the load.  In theory anyway.

Kev.

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