Discussion > Will Batteries Do The Job?
Investing in the whole renewables infrastructure such that it powers most of our lives. Here is how to think of it...
It is like the British Empire in 1830 coming up with its global integrated transport strategy for the next 30 years based around the horse and cart.
And as part of that they realise they so many million square kms of grassland to breed, pasture and feed the horses.
And then implementing it.
And then comes along the railways which by 1850 had thousands of kms of track laid.
Making the whole capital expenditure and use of resources a waste.
We are talking about old technology. Wind, solar, current battery technology. They have had their day and failed.
Governments want to put in place 20 year capital expenditure plans for old technology, and it will only take one step change in technology to render it all useless. Note: it will never be wind, it has reached its peak,
And I will be the first to buy into renewables when that happens.
I am 100% convinced that a step-change will occur, and there is not point wasting money on horse, carts and the infrastructure to support them.
Media Hoar
We have all witnessed and benefitted from developments in battery technology, for items such as mobile phones in the last 20-30 years.
The chemistry and technology used in a standard 12 Volt battery in an engined car, is little different to that used in 1970s Milk Floats and WW1 & 2 Submarines.
golf charlie
With $90 billion spent on batteries and 4,000 MW of more wind farms, South Australia could be a totally renewable state, at least for electricity.
JoNova: Battery powered SA, could be 100% renewable for just $60 – $90 billion
Robert Christopher
This is the elephant in the room:
"The irony is that the heavily subsidised nature of renewables has rendered the back-up grids required to function at all times commercially unviable; no sane investor would risk his money in an unsubsidised conventional power plant that only operates when it is needed; the economics don’t stack up."
"So what he is suggesting is that we should keep on increasing our use of heavily subsidised renewables, and then have to spend more money on batteries to make up for their intermittency. Somehow, this is expected to lead to cheaper prices!
Whether the declining cost of batteries will make them a cheaper option than conventional standby capacity is irrelevant. The question is, will batteries do the job?"
NotALotOfPeopleKnowThat: DailyTelegraph: Jeremy Warner’s Battery Revolution
And we all know the answer to that, as we know that batteries need to be charged using 'spare' generation capacity! :)