Native American tribe insulates itself from CA blackouts with microgrid utility

Re:Native American tribe insulates itself from CA blackouts ... by coding123 on Saturday January 04, 2020 @10:12PM (#21959376)

When they built it the cost of the battery was the most expensive, followed by the labor, followed by the panels (unless they got ripped off, which happens).

Even with the higher import taxes, the panels themselves are much cheaper than they were 4 years ago. With Lithium battery systems pricing dropping as fast as it is, we can probably expect Li batteries to hit $160 per KWh soon.

All this and a hot market for microgrids could also affect the labor market - or indeed companies that want to offer this to neighborhoods for sub $1MM with 100K residents may soon take off.

We can imagine a future without large companies that operate high voltage transmission lines.

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Re:Native American tribe insulates itself from CA blackouts ... by VvR-Ox on Sunday January 05, 2020 @05:08AM (#21960587)

Really looking forward to this future as there is several advantages following this approach:

1. Decentralized, therefor more difficult to attack or destroy.

2. Increase in autonomy, which in my opinion is always good (I'll be glad to stop paying those parasites more money just because they decide to increase the prices though they have to pay less for buying power somewhere else).

3. More knowledge about physics will spread - more knowledge is always good in my opinion.

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Re:Native American tribe insulates itself from CA blackouts ... by taurath on Sunday January 05, 2020 @04:27AM (#21960473)

Economies of scale is still a thing. I’d rather a large solar farm handle it’s ecological consequences than spreading the (small but noticeable) damage around everywhere.

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Re:Native American tribe insulates itself from CA blackouts ... by wongarsu on Sunday January 05, 2020 @09:17AM (#21961323)

However transmission loses are also a thing, and transmission lines don't maintain themselves (as everybody in California is acutely aware now). There's a point where you are remote enough that a grid connection doesn't make sense, and cheap solar has made that category a lot bigger.

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Re:Native American tribe insulates itself from CA blackouts ... by oarsinsync on Sunday January 05, 2020 @05:01AM (#21960569)

Agreed. But if I can built a 5kWh battery at home for $800, that's almost a full day of backup power at normal use for everything. That feels valuable.

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