This reminds me of how in Germany, before there has been a value added tax, there'd been a revenue tax. It was lower, but you had to pay it on every $ of revenue, even if your profit margin was very small. So a lot of businesses started to vertically integrate. Once the system switched to one where you get back the tax for the things your business buys, businesses got broken up or grew in only one of the steps of their supply chain.
Re:EVs Are Essential Grid-Scale Storage
by onlyrealcuzzo on Wednesday January 25, 2023 @11:41AM
(#34520517)
> Rooftop solar outcompetes solar farms because energy from a solar farm pays taxes and distribution costs before it is delivered to a user.
This depends where you live and the size/efficiency of your rooftop setup, right?
Re:EVs Are Essential Grid-Scale Storage
by antisthenes on Wednesday January 25, 2023 @10:06PM
(#34527270)
> Rooftop solar outcompetes solar farms because energy from a solar farm pays taxes and distribution costs before it is delivered to a user. Whereas rooftop solar energy is untaxed when it powers your laptop.
If you completely neglect the installation part, sure. Utility-scale solar farms have massive efficiencies of scale on purchasing panels and on labor-related overhead.
It's not that clear cut, basically.
I think what the EV model allows is for private car owners to essentially sell a part of their car back in increments, if for some reason their driving behavior changes and they don't need to drive as much as they used to.
> It only makes sense if the EV owner can somehow get charge capacity "for free"
The EV owner has the power electronics 'for free' - ie. they have almost infinite lifespan, and just a capital cost.
Additionally, the variations of energy prices on the grid are really wide. There might be $100k/MWh for 5 minutes per year. It isn't worth a static operator paying the capital cost for the batteries (which also degrade with time) to setup for 5 minutes use per year. But it does make sense for the EV owner to do so, because his marginal cost is tiny.