Why did renewables become so cheap so fast?

Re:Why did renewables become so cheap so fast? by tachyonbeam on Wednesday December 02, 2020 @10:16PM (#25284918)

It's going to be both. Tesla is working hard on mass-producing more affordable batteries. At the level of individuals it's already worthwhile. For 20K you can have enough Powerwall batteries to power your home when the sun isn't shining. 20K isn't that much on a 300-500K house. Competition will come and the price will come down more.

Couple that with automated buying/selling of renewable power at different times of the day, more efficient home insulation and... I'd say we're nearly there.

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Re:Why did renewables become so cheap so fast? by pjc50 on Thursday December 03, 2020 @05:14AM (#25287487)

> For 20K you can have enough Powerwall batteries to power your home when the sun isn't shining

Huge amount of money to get off the grid - how many years of bills is that?

I have a 4kW system up here at 56 degrees north, and there's no way I could go off grid with it because the seasonality is huge; I can't store power all the way through the winter. I get it from the big offshore windfarms instead.

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Re:Why did renewables become so cheap so fast? by tachyonbeam on Thursday December 03, 2020 @02:00PM (#25292961)

Renewable power and everyone being off-grid are not the same. I think we'd all like to be off-grid, but it won't be possible for everyone (eg: people living in apartments).

Curious to know, how much power do you get during the winter vs summer?

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Re:Why did renewables become so cheap so fast? by newyankee on Thursday December 03, 2020 @01:53AM (#25286260)

CATL, BYD, LG Chem , Panasonic and numerous new entrants stepping up their game due to Tesla competition. Hope there is cooperation too.

India without any Li ion manufacturer is trying very hard to get at least 1 or 2 off the ground with production linked incentives and a few business houses have entered.

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