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The Way Humans Get Electricity Is About to Change Forever

posted by martyb on Sunday June 28 2015, @03:55PM   Printer-friendly
from the but-using-same-old-approach-for-non-humans dept.

Phoenix666 writes with a story from Bloomberg News:

The renewable-energy boom is here. Trillions of dollars will be invested over the next 25 years, driving some of the most profound changes yet in how humans get their electricity. That's according to a new forecast by Bloomberg New Energy Finance that plots out global power markets to 2040.

Here are six massive shifts coming soon to power markets near you:

  1. Solar Prices Keep Crashing
  2. Solar Billions Become Solar Trillions
  3. The Revolution Will Be Decentralized
  4. Global Demand Slows
  5. Natural Gas Burns Briefly
  6. The Climate Is Still Screwed

 
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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by sjames on Sunday June 28 2015, @06:39PM

    by sjames (2882) on Sunday June 28 2015, @06:39PM (#202474) Journal

    Now it is moving into charging for the interconnect to reduce distributed solar.

    Power companies in Australia tried that and ended up blowing their foot off. People started adding batteries and connecting the solar output directly to various appliances (sometimes with a switch to go from grid to solar. Some were ticked off enough that they went off the grid entirely [reneweconomy.com.au].

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  • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday June 28 2015, @08:09PM

    by kaszz (4211) on Sunday June 28 2015, @08:09PM (#202491) Journal

    Another possibility is alternative grids such that neighbors could trade energy with each other and eliminate the need to have a batteries and solar panels for every need possible at anytime. It would at least do wonders with peak loads for anything that contains motors like fridges.

    On top of that, such grid may even be utilizing HVDC to do away with cumbersome conversions. Arcing can be controlled by electronics and if it were to occur, transmission lines like this usually are outside of homes that can burn down.

    The main problem with cutting the cord to the electrical grid is a cost efficient energy storage. Batteries wear out..

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2015, @11:11AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2015, @11:11AM (#202729)

    Just FYI,
    In Spain it is being legislated to make it illegal to produce your own energy, (unless you still pay for it more as if the government sold it to you)

    • (Score: 2) by davester666 on Tuesday June 30 2015, @08:35AM

      by davester666 (155) on Tuesday June 30 2015, @08:35AM (#203244)

      Of course you have to pay for it. The gov't owns the sunlight hitting your property.

  • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Monday June 29 2015, @05:12PM

    by urza9814 (3954) on Monday June 29 2015, @05:12PM (#202897) Journal

    Some were ticked off enough that they went off the grid entirely.

    Thankfully, here in the US, they've already made that illegal...