Hawaiian Electric to pay customers for adding battery storage to rooftop solar:
Hawaiian Electric has launched a new programme that will pay customers to add battery storage to an existing or new rooftop solar system.
The 'Battery Bonus' scheme is a one-time cash incentive paid to residential and commercial customers on the island of O'ahu, which Hawaiian Electric hopes will move the state toward its goal of 100% clean energy by 2045.
[...] "The Public Utilities Commission sees the value that solar and batteries can bring to our grid, and have unveiled a new program to accelerate adoption here in Hawaii," said Robert Harris, Sunrun's director of public policy for Hawaii.
Applications will be accepted until June 20, 2023, or until the cap is reached, with customers required to use a contractor. Taxable payments will be made to the solar-plus-storage system owner.
Customers who take part must use or export stored electricity at the contracted amount on a two-hour schedule specified by Hawaiian Electric between 6pm-8pm every day (including weekends and holidays) until December 31, 2023.
After this, they will be given the option to move onto the scheme's next phase – a ten-year programme to be defined by the PUC.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by corey on Thursday August 05 2021, @10:42AM (5 children)
… our energy retailers have taken to limiting the amount of energy they buy back from customers with rooftop solar systems. It’s to solve the issue of grid instability due to too much solar infeed. The uptake of lots of battery systems would also solve the issue. Actually in South Australia they have installed a massive battery system (Tesla) to help stabilise the system as well. But they’re a progressive government. It would be great if the government subsidised battery systems for everyone or at least some! (They would if we were all big businesses!)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Thursday August 05 2021, @12:38PM (4 children)
I'm seeing heaps of ads pushing for buffer battery installation.
I didn't look more into it, but if it doesn't allow me control over my consumption and doesn't allow for islanding my home in case the grid goes down I don't see much advantage to it. Probably I'll start looking for these details some time this year. (the $/kWh stored is also a factor).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 05 2021, @12:48PM (1 child)
If you are into waiting for a better deal, wait for the cheap (but heavy) iron batteries that are coming real soon now...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 05 2021, @02:54PM
I've seriously considered building my own nickel-iron batteries and going completely off grid. If Edison could do it 120 years ago, it shouldn't be too hard these days. Given how old the design is and the cheapness of the materials in them, Ni-Fe batteries are ridiculously expensive.
I figure 6Kw of panels should be enough, and maybe add one of those sub-1Kw mini windmills for a bit of power diversity.
(Score: 2) by corey on Saturday August 07 2021, @03:59AM (1 child)
Yeah I’ve seen them too. I’m with you on that, I’m actually looking at getting a solar installation done and I’d be wanting to utilise an inverter that has capability of running off grid. I believe the default ones they supply don’t allow islanding. I’m thinking of making my own SLA or LiFePO battery system. You can get 200AH SLA’s for a decent price. I have tons of space (rural) so I don’t need energy density and can just build a shed for them.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday August 07 2021, @04:45AM
Acid battery have troubles with hot temperatures - self-discharge and premature capacity loss. SLA partially mitigate the capacity loss (because of the gelified electrolyte they use), but can't deal with the self-discharge. Quick search gets this [northeastbattery.com]
80F = 26C - that's winter max time temperature above Sydney, especially if you put them in a shed with not much of a thermal insulation. Expect something exponentially worse as the temperatures go into 40C (because chemistry is a bitch and reaction times go exponential with temperature)
---
I'd say go for LiFePO4. You can get a 24V/420Ah (10kWh) for about USD1500-1700 [aliexpress.com] (factoring postage and GST).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 05 2021, @12:17PM (5 children)
House fires seem to be up in the state.
(See the Tesla big battery fire in AU? THe best plan was to let it burn and cool everything aroud it so it would not spread. Cheap, powerful, and safe can be hard for batteries.)
(Score: 5, Interesting) by c0lo on Thursday August 05 2021, @12:46PM (2 children)
Absofuckinglutely false. The choice of using for buffering a battery chemistry geared for mobility was too hasty.
LiFePO4 [wikipedia.org] is only 20% lower energy density per mass than LiPolymer and does not catch fire.
Iron air [energy.gov] rechargeable battery is at about 40% mass specific energy density, but denser by volume. Doesn't catch fire either, it's aqueous medium.
Energy storage for grid balancing is not sensitive to mass
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 05 2021, @12:54PM (1 child)
> The choice of using for buffering a battery chemistry geared for mobility was too hasty.
To be fair, I'd say, "expedient" instead of "hasty"--since the Li cells for cars are already in high volume mass production. The other chemistries aren't at that level of production (yet).
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday August 05 2021, @01:25PM
Actually LiFePO4 is used on a larger scale than LiPo.
The catch is - it is produced mainly in China.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday August 05 2021, @02:01PM (1 child)
> House fires seem to be up in the state.
Citation needed
(Score: 2) by Tork on Thursday August 05 2021, @06:04PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 05 2021, @12:46PM
https://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=HI [eia.gov]
Grid electric prices, residential, are somewhere around $0.40/kWh, roughly triple what we pay in western New York.