Daily Archives: March 18, 2015

Why Tesla’s battery for your home should terrify utilities

March 18, 2015Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, Energy Storage, News, Reviews and Comment, TeslaTrevor Larkum

Elon Musk’s electricity empire could mean a new type of power grid

Earlier this week, during a disappointing Tesla earnings call, Elon Musk mentioned in passing that he’d be producing a stationary battery for powering the home in the next few months. It sounded like a throwaway side project from someone who’s never seen a side project he doesn’t like. But it’s a very smart move, and one that’s more central to Musk’s ambitions than it might seem.

To understand why, it helps to look not at Tesla, but at SolarCity, a company chaired by Musk and run by his cousin Lyndon Rive. SolarCity installs panels on people’s roofs, leases them for less than they’d be paying in energy bills, and sells surplus energy back to the local utility. It’s proven a tremendously successful model. Founded in 2006, the company now has 168,000 customers and controls 39 percent of the rapidly expanding residential solar market.

Fueled by financing systems like SolarCity’s, government subsidies, and a rapid drop in the price of photovoltaics, solar has been growing fast. But with that growth, some of solar’s downsides are coming to the fore. Obviously, the sun isn’t always shining when you need power, and sometimes the sun is shining when you don’t need power. The former is a problem for the user, who needs to draw on the grid when it’s cloudy or dark; the latter is a problem for the grid, which needs to find a place for that excess energy to go. When there’s a lot of solar in the system, it can get hard to keep the grid balanced.

That’s part of the reason that California, with one of the most aggressive renewable energy mandates in the country, recently declared the most aggressive energy storage mandate as well, with a goal of 1.3 gigawatts of storage by 2020. As other states adopt intermittent renewables like solar and wind, they’ll need to install energy storage too, providing a ready and waiting market for Tesla’s batteries.

Tesla Powerwall display (Image: T. Larkum)

This has been part of the plan for the Gigafactory all along. At an event in New York last fall announcing plans for SolarCity to build a gigantic PV-panel factory, Musk and Rive mentioned that every SolarCity unit would come with battery storage within five to ten years, and that the systems would supply power at a lower cost than natural gas. Those batteries will come from the gigafactory, currently being built in Nevada. Once the factory comes online, the strong demand for energy storage will allow it to immediately ramp up production and achieve economies of scale. Tesla CTO JB Straubel (who has said that he “might love batteries more than cars”) says that the market for stationary batteries “can scale faster than automotive” and that a full 30 percent of the gigafactory will be dedicated to them.

Indeed, SolarCity has already begun installing Tesla batteries, mostly on commercial buildings like Walmart stores, which have to pay higher rates when they use lots of power during peak hours. Tesla’s batteries let them store up solar power when they don’t need it, then use it when rates are high, shaving 20-30 percent off their energy bills, according to Ravi Manghani, an analyst at GTM Research.

SolarCity is also running a pilot project with 500 homes in California, according to the company’s director of public affairs, Will Craven. The project uses Tesla’s 10-kilowatt-hour battery packs and can power homes for about two days in the event of an outage, Craven says.

The prospect of cheap solar panels combined with powerful batteries has been a source of significant anxiety in the utility sector. In 2013, the Edison Electric Institute, the trade group for investor-owned electric companies, issued a report warning that disruption was coming. “One can imagine a day when battery storage technology or micro turbines could allow customers to be electric grid independent,” the report said, likening the speed of the coming transition to the one from landlines to cellphones 10 years ago. Suddenly regulated monopolies are finding themselves in competition with their own customers.

They haven’t had to deal with this on the residential side yet, primarily because people can sell excess power back to the utilities at fairly high rates — a practice called net metering. But that’s hurting utilities, too, and some have tried to lower the price at which they buy back power, which has been met by furious protests from people leasing panels. If utilities lower the buyback rate too much, however, and batteries get cheap enough, people may just unplug from the grid altogether — or more likely, install systems that let them rely on it only rarely — prompting what those in the industry call “the utility death spiral.” It’s quite a bind: by fighting net metering, utilities would help make battery storage more economically viable, driving the transition to a distributed grid.

Manghani believes utilities aren’t doomed, but they may undergo a radical transformation, becoming something closer to service providers and minders of an increasingly distributed grid rather than the centralized power producers they are today. Such a system would require lots of batteries to help balance the load and supply extra power during peak times, which is why GTM estimates the market will grow from $48 million today to about $1 billion in 2018.

This is the position SolarCity is taking as well. Last April, Peter Rive, SolarCity’s CTO, wrote that the company had no interest in prompting mass defections from the grid.

“When batteries are optimized across the grid, they can direct clean solar electricity where (and when) it is needed most, lowering costs for utilities and for all ratepayers,” he wrote.

Utilities are in the best position to direct that electricity, he said, inviting utility operators to contact him. Will Craven, Solar City’s director of public affairs, calls it “infrastructure as a service.”

“Utilities aren’t doomed, but they may undergo a radical transformation”

It would be a tricky transition, but some utilities may be open to it. During an earnings call last year, Straubel, Tesla’s CTO, said they were working with utilities.

“The long-term demand for stationary energy storage is extraordinary,” he said. “We’ve done a huge amount of effort there and have talked to major utilities and energy service companies.”

Another potential bright spot for utilities is Tesla itself. If electric vehicles take off, demand for power will go up, helping compensate for people whose homes are relying less on the grid.

All this is very good news for Musk, who starts to look less like a carmaker and more like the architect of a vertically integrated energy company, with SolarCity making solar panels that send power to Tesla batteries, both in the home and on the road.

“They’re not just carmakers,” Manghani says. “They’re part of the electricity network. At least folks in the energy industry are very well aware of Tesla as a battery maker.”

Source: The Verge

Party leaders make joint climate commitment

March 18, 2015Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and CommentTrevor Larkum

The UK’s political leaders have pledged to work together to combat climate change, whatever the election result.

In a joint statement, David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg said climate change was one of the most serious threats facing the world.

They said climate change threatens not just the environment but also security, prosperity and poverty eradication.

They have promised to end coal burning for power generation in the UK – unless it uses new clean-up technology.

Environmentalists say the pledge is significant because it quells some of their fears that the Conservatives might adopt a more climate-sceptic line, to mirror UKIP’s position.

‘Moment of unity’

The move will be noticed by the UK’s European partners working towards a global agreement on climate change at the UN conference in Paris in December. Some of them had been nervous that the UK might soften its leadership position in the talks, given the level of climate scepticism expressed by some newspapers and Conservative backbenchers.

The statement will also please investors who have been deterred from sinking money into renewable energy systems because they feared a withdrawal from climate policies.

It has been brokered by Matthew Spencer of the think tank Green Alliance, who told BBC News:

“The purpose is to create space for the current and future PM to ensure that the UK can play a full role in securing a good outcome in Paris.

He added that another aim was “to reassure investors that agreement remains strong across current leaders on emissions reduction, and that we’re unlikely to see a major change in direction whichever party forms the next government”.

“It’s very unusual to get a moment of unity in the midst of a general election, and it is generating lots of excitement. A non-partisan approach is the holy grail in the US. It is in our national interest to act and to ensure that others act with us.”

Severe Flooding, Against a Background of Wind Turbines: November 2012, Tyringham, Bucks. (Image: T. Larkum)

The leaders have gone so far as to promise to ban “unabated” coal-fired power generation – meaning that, if it is to continue, the emissions will need to be captured and stored in rock formations. This decision has been long debated and will send a strong signal of intent to the power industry.

The leaders state:

“Acting on climate change is an opportunity for the UK to grow a stronger economy more efficient, and more resilient to risks ahead.”

They pledge:

to seek a fair, strong, legally binding, global climate deal which limits temperature rises to below 2C
to work together, across party lines, to agree carbon budgets in accordance with the Climate Change Act
to accelerate the transition to a competitive, energy efficient low carbon economy and to end the use of unabated coal for power generation

Critics fear that combating climate change will make energy unaffordable. UKIP says climate change fears are inflated and the party’s UKIP’s energy spokesman recently said his party wanted to repeal the Climate Change Act, which commits the UK to step-by-step reductions in CO2 until 2050. He said the relationship between CO2 levels and global temperatures is “hugely open to question”.

Labour leader Ed Miliband recently restated that tackling climate change “goes to the heart of” his beliefs. A Liberal Democrat source said tackling climate change was in the party’s DNA.

The Green Party says the UK should be making much more urgent progress towards getting the country powered by renewables.

Greenpeace welcomed the new statement. Its director John Sauven said:

“This pledge marks a turning point in the collective effort to take Britain’s energy system out of the Victorian age and into the 21st century. Party leaders now need to set a clear expiry date on coal pollution, stop subsidies to coal plants, and start investing in the clean energy infrastructure this country really needs.”

Industry leaders will need reassuring about how this can be done without pushing up energy prices and making the UK uncompetitive.

Source: BBC

Renault respond to OLEV funding announcement

March 18, 2015Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, Renault, ZOETrevor Larkum

Renault welcomes decision to introduce banding to Plug-in Car Grant
Renault ZOE now up to £552 cheaper from 1 April 2015
Renault EV sales in the UK rose 90 per cent in 2014

Renault welcomes the changes to the Plug-in Car Grant announced today by the Government’s Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV).

The Plug-in Car Grant (PiCG) changes that will take effect from 1 April 2015 recognise the technological and environmental progress that vehicles have made since the original grant was announced in 2010 and provide further financial incentive for motorists to move to Ultra Low Emissions Vehicles such as the Renault Z.E. (Zero Emissions) range.

Commenting on the announcement, Ken Ramirez, Managing Director, Renault UK said:

“We welcome the changes announced today by OLEV as the move to a banding system for grant funding recognises the real-world practicality and zero tailpipe emission advantages that electric vehicles have over other types of alternative fuel vehicles.

“The Renault ZOE hatchback was already the most affordable electric vehicle on the market. The move to the 35 per cent funding for cars in the lowest emitting band will make ZOE even more affordable and encourage yet more motorists to move to zero tailpipe emission vehicles.”

The changes to the PiCG from 1 April 2015 mean that a Renault ZOE will reduce in price by £552 on the Expression trim level and by £152 on the Dynamique trim levels due to the move from a 25 per cent of vehicle value cap on the grant to a 35 per cent cap for vehicles in the new Band One (up to 75g/km and a range of 70 miles or above).

The Renault ZOE is a 5-door hatchback that has been designed from the ground-up to offer all the advantages of a practical supermini, including a 5-star Euro NCAP safety rating, with the environmental and running cost savings of a pure electric vehicle.

ZOE has an official NEDC range of 130 miles from one charge. Thanks to its patented Chameleon™ charger, and unlike its rivals, it is able to adapt itself and make the optimum use of any charging power source and therefore charge from empty to 80 per cent capacity in just 30 minutes – be that at home with the free charging wallbox that comes with the car when new or from a wide range of public sources.

Renault was a pioneer in the emerging electric vehicle market and offers a range of 100% electric cars and vans to suit most requirements. The ZOE supermini sits alongside the fun and distinctive Twizy urban run-around. Twizy is also available in a commercial vehicle version with a boot instead of a rear passenger seat – Twizy Cargo. Completing the Renault Z.E line-up is the Kangoo Van Z.E. – the perfect urban van for deliveries and tradesmen and is available in a range of bodystyles.

The Twizy is priced from £6,895, the ZOE from £13,995 (after the PiCG) and the Kangoo Van Z.E. from £12,995+VAT (after the Plug-in Van Grant).

Renault electric vehicle sales in the United Kingdom rose by 90 per cent in 2014, to 1,286 vehicles. Total Renault electric vehicle sales in Europe in 2014 stood at 17,580 vehicles – 11,231 of which were ZOEs, an amount up 27 per cent on 2013.

Source: Automotive World