I came across this video about electricity pricing and how solar and batteries are finally making electricity cheaper.
This is about Australia because Australia is ahead of the curve BUT it will apply everywhere in time. It is only short but well worth watching
People think that because power is generated from the wind or solar it will be cheaper than power generated from conventional power stations…It Isn’t.
It takes over 300 of the largest wind turbines to output the same as a 1 gW station.
Imagine all those resources needed to produce 300 wind turbines.
Then there’s the transportation (mainly from China) and the siting and erecting in remote places (usually the sea around the coast of Britain) the miles and miles of copper cable to connect them to a mainland grid. Wind turbines need lots of maintenance, especially offshore ones.
And then, because they don’t produce power when you need it (mainly in winter when there is less daylight and no use from solar panels) we need massive Lithium battery storage units taking up as much space as a conventional power station.
In the UK these massive battery storage units will only supply a few thousand houses for a couple of hours.
Madness!
Yes you might get your power for free but the costs are in the equipment to convert wind and solar into electricity, when compared to conventional power stations they produce miniscule amounts of power, that’s why we need so many turbines and hectares of solar panels.
With an approximately 25 year lifespan, even less for offshore and solar panels, we already need to replace units that were already installed.
How long do you think coal fired power stations last?
Rooftop solar during the day is making wholesale price of electricity zero, sometimes even negative, hence the need for batteries, the example of mine that you quoted has been fixed it was just a management issue, easily sorted.
If you have a smart meter here you get power between 11am and 2pm for free, obviously the time to wash your clothes run the dishwasher, heat the water etc.
They are trying to flatten the evening peak which means that far less redundant capacity is needed so much less capital expenditure. it is a long term fix.
