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Renewable energy revolution coming, with cheap battery storage

Disruptive change is a constant feature of capitalism. Railways ran coaching inns out of business. Electricity did for gas lighting, which had replaced oil lights, which replaced whale oil. The economistJoseph Schumpeter called it “creative destruction”. We are on the crest of another technological tsunami.

The good news is that this wave will make the planet safer, and our children’s future more secure

Cheap batteries will revolutionise the renewable energy market Chris Huhne The Guardian, Monday 10 March 2014   The big power companies will struggle to keep up as a solution emerges to the problem of storing wind and solar power  News this week, from opposite ends of the planet, that points to the convulsion of change about to hit the global economy.

The first report came from Palo Alto, California, headquarters of the Tesla electric car company. Tesla’s car produces no carbon emissions (so long as the electricity that charges its batteries is also low carbon). Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk, announced it would invest in a $4bn-$5bn “gigafactory” doubling the world’sproduction of lithium-ion batteries. These power your mobile phone, but also Tesla’s high-end luxury electric cars. The objective is to cut battery prices by 30% in three years, and to halve them by 2020.

Since battery cost is the main obstacle to electric cars, this is potentially game-changing. It would allow electric cars with a 200-mile range to compete with the Ford Mondeo and not just the BMW 5-series (Tesla has already spurred the Bavarian luxury car-maker into an electric response)………..

Most fundamentally, it will make the transition to low-carbon electricity far easier. Renewables like solar and onshore wind are coming down dramatically in price – the industry forecasts they will be cheaper than grid electricity in most of the world by 2025 – but they have a key disadvantage: they do not produce electricity when people want it.

This matters. The UK is typical in having an enormous variation in electricity use through the day……..

Because solar and wind have no fuel costs, and you pay for the capital cost up front, their electricity is pumped into the grid regardless of price. With nearly a quarter of German electricity coming from renewables last year, the wholesale price of electricity can collapse on sunny, windy days. Sometimes power companies have to pay to deliver electricity to the grid. Since you cannot quickly shut down power stations this has cost the German utilities dear…………

Disruptive change is a constant feature of capitalism. Railways ran coaching inns out of business. Electricity did for gas lighting, which had replaced oil lights, which replaced whale oil. The economistJoseph Schumpeter called it “creative destruction”. We are on the crest of another technological tsunami.

The good news is that this wave will make the planet safer, and our children’s future more secure.http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/09/cheap-batteries-renewable-energy-market-big-power-companies-wind-solar-power

March 10, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized