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posted by janrinok on Thursday August 29 2019, @12:25PM   Printer-friendly

Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd

With a battery in every apartment, the whole complex can store extra power when the sun shines, and then move it around where it's needed at night.

"When there's excess solar-generated energy produced, instead of just pushing it into the grid right away, it's going to be shifted and harnessed in the batteries," Richetta says. "Rocky Mountain Power will look at that in real time, and every day will constantly be able to say, okay, when can we use this solar?" Right now, in areas with a lot of solar power, there's often so much energy produced when the sun is out that it can't be used; without battery storage, when power is needed at night, utilities have to turn to more polluting sources.

The developer, the Wasatch Group, saw investing in solar power and batteries as the right thing to do for the region, which is already experiencing climate impacts including worsening wildfires and droughts. "We looked at how are we going to be responsible stewards," says Jarom Johnson, chief operating officer for Wasatch Premier Communities. "This was probably the best option that we could identify that allowed us to say, 'Hey, we're going to push the envelope.' It's going to challenge our standard mantra for development. But we have specific outcomes we're trying to pursue, which are we want to limit our footprint, and we want to allow a large portion of individuals to be housed without throwing a bunch of carbon in the air." The company took advantage of federal and state tax credits to offset the cost of the project, and will be paid by the utility for access to the virtual power plant.

But why are they inside the apartments, when they're controlled by the utility company?

Source: https://www.fastcompany.com/90394337/in-this-new-solar-powered-apartment-complex-all-600-units-have-batteries-that-form-a-virtual-power-plant


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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday August 30 2019, @10:27AM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday August 30 2019, @10:27AM (#887701)

    No, in reality people park their cars outside because they've got so much crap in the garage that the car doesn't fit anymore - and, in reality, all that crap is probably as much of if not more of a fire hazard than the car, particularly when it includes lawn care equipment with leaky fuel systems, big cardboard boxes, etc.

    However, when a car does catch fire, it does much less damage to the home if it is outside, even though garages should be built to a "2 hour fire wall" code, that doesn't always work as envisioned and never prevents all the smoke damage and rebuilding of the garage itself.

    Now, if you have installed a 300lb halon suppression system in your garage, that might be a better place to have a car fire than outside, but... better still to not have a flaming Ford in the first place. I wonder, what the fire damage potential is comparing a Tesla battery system to a full tank of fuel - the potential energy should be roughly equivalent, but I imagine the suppression system in the battery pack is a little more effective.

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