Submitted by anflop_flopnor t3_10ggszp in Futurology
I am curious about the future of non off grid electric systems. Is there a trend towards usage in that way? Are micro generation systems being used anywhere to much success? I'm inquiring about any fuel source: solar, hydro, hydrogen, fossil fuel or anything else. Are storage and battery capacity the main draw backs? I'm just a bit curious on the subject, maybe this a place to ask if anyone in the know has some answers.
Off-grid systems appear to be all the rage now, with more and more companies advertising and selling portable battery power stations and solar/wind generators. However, the idea isn't exactly new. Off-grid power by solar, wind and sometimes hydro, is used in remote areas for decades now. But lately, improvements in battery tech made it more economically viable to make batteries you can cart around with ease, that pack plenty of power to get you through a day. However, there's still the economy of scale. Small scale solutions are comparatively expensive, even more so where mains electricity is comparatively cheap. That's why small scale generation isn't really a thing in places, where mains grid is available. Experimental or DIY solutions aside, of course. But on a larger scale it's a different story. Usually power generation and storage gets cheaper per unit when scaled up.
Recently, Australia disconnected remote areas from the power grid and replaced it with power stations powered by solar and wind generators. They claim that due to the long and maintenance intensive power lines, this would help cut costs. Reliability does not seem to be a problem there.
Here is an interesting story:
In Australia, neighbourhoods are using community batteries to store solar energy locally. This helps reduce their bills and eases pressure on the electricity grid at peak times. Wind and solar energy isn’t always needed when it’s produced – so storing it means it can be used later when demand is high. Community batteries are being trialled in neighbourhoods across Australia. These help residents pool and share solar energy.
Here’s a short explainer.
What are community batteries? Community batteries are energy storage units based in local neighbourhoods.
Residents with solar panels on their homes can use them to store spare electricity they haven’t used. By pooling excess energy from local homes, the community batteries build up a store of electricity for later use. Typically, energy stored during the day when sunlight is plentiful will be released in the afternoon and evenings during peak times when energy demand – and its cost – is higher. This eases pressure on the electricity grid.
Community batteries vary in size and might look like a fridge or a shipping container. A one-megawatt hour (1MWh) battery can power up to 1,000 average homes for about two hours.
Graphic of community batteries. Community batteries are neighbourhood solar-energy storage systems. Image: McKell Institute Where are community batteries already used? In Australia, electricity distributors are trialling community batteries in various neighbourhoods. More than 30% of Australian homes have rooftop solar panels, according to the Australian Government. Solar is the country’s fastest growing type of energy generation and accounted for 10% of Australia’s electricity in 2020-2021.
In Western Australia, an initial trial by state utilities Western Power and Synergy in Alkimos Beach north of Perth involved 119 homes joining a community battery scheme.
Households are typically paid for sending their spare electricity to the community battery, and are then charged a bit less for using energy from it. Australia’s ABC News reports that householders saved about AUS$81,000 on electricity costs over the five years of the trial. They also consumed 85% less energy from Australia’s electricity grid at peak times.
In New South Wales on Australia’s east coast, electricity distributor Ausgrid is running community battery trials in another three areas. Ausgrid says the benefits of community batteries include removing the need for homes to buy their own batteries and keeping electricity prices down for residents and the wider community.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/04/solar-energy-community-batteries-australia/
With soaring electricity prices everywhere it's now as economically viable as never before. However, you should massively overplan on solar and storage, maybe add some wind generators to the mix if you plan on never going back to grid in an emergency. Maybe even a small gas powered generator for emergencies could be a good solution. Being off-grid means, you can't rely on others to help you out, when wind and solar don't deliver. Especially in the winter, where solar delivers like 20-30% of what it delivers in summer(numbers derived from my own experimental setup).
Behind the meter solar + battery will cost less than transmission upgrades to meet electrification needs very soon. It will be the plurality if not the majority of energy in the areas where 90% of the people live. Not only covering the overwhelming majority of home and low rise commercial energy and heating, small scale agriculture, private transport and light commercial transport but also exporting enough during summer to feed a big part of non-time-critical industrial usage like electrolysers for chemical feedstock. This will be over half of world energy.
Energy that doesn't pass through a single floor or low rise building at some point (ie. Heavy transport, high rise commercial, heavy industrial) will probably not have micro generation as a major component but more as an opportunistic suppliment.
I would imagine we'll get a mix, where some people will be 100% off-grid, others will provide small amounts of power to the grid in a "virtual power plant" type operation, and big power generators will provide power for everyone else.
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The future electric grid will be an interconnected series of micro-grids. Each micro-grid, while typically capable of supporting itself will be interconnected with multiple other micro-grids for redundancy and load balancing.
These grids will be powered via a multitude of sources, predominantly renewables, and utilize a combination of hydro, gravity, thermal, V2X, and similar technology for short to mid term storage of excess energy.
In the earlier days, this will look less like micro-grids and more like grid connected buildings that are supplemented with renewables; however, that will rapidly change as the adoption of EVs increase, particularly those with V2X capabilities. As V2X increases, the charging systems will use algorithmic models of usage patterns to intelligentlly allow for excess energy to be re-introduced into the grid.
This will subsequently reduce the demand on what is predominantly fossil fuel based generators to provide power at night.. which decreases their efficiency and increases the cost of production. In turn, this will encourage the adoption of renewables on a smaller scale (i.e. transitioning from primarily industrial and large enterprises, to mid-size, and ultimately residential).
As this occurs, there will also be a significant transition to large scale long-term energy storage to buffer those "once in a century" type events that exceed micro-grid capacity.
Cool thx for the comments. I am in a plain ol blue collar construction job, and I have seen the transition of hand tools to battery power over the last decade. So they are still charged on grid but it was interesting to watch more and more tools unplug over the years.
Also I made this post thinking about vehicles and the micro generation combustion engines that drive each individual car. But with a move to electric and battery power vehicles that puts the energy supplier on the grid where they weren't there before.
So I guess I'm also curious about the actual motors that run the micro generation systems. Are there any developments in hydrogen fuel cells, or new technologies in kinetic energy (wind and water)? Are there any other subs or online places to read and learn about this type of thing?
Africa is going through it's own revolution now, google some videos
I can't find them now, but there was an african chap making nice videos of how people lives and how they were using microgrids, local solar and how it help to improve people's lives
also the aspect of leapfrogging from national grids that require substancial goverment money to fund the infrastructure, (money that they don't have and those projects may take long time on underdeveloped areas) to personal and microgrids and the huge diference that makes having access to free energy with very low cost infrastructure, i.e enough to power basic needs, a radio, tv, phone charging and extend ligh hours
As well as the ability to deploy it at remote areas
iNstein t1_j52p0dr wrote
I am planning on having an overbuilt solar and battery system for my home. I should be able to disconnect from the grid and will not use gas so will not be dependent on any external system for power. I believe this is something that will become much more common as batteries and solar panels continue to get cheaper.