Wow, someone almost lost their house to a scooter fire, except some neighbors noticed and kept the flames from spreading...
"It turns out a scooter that was plugged in for charging had its batteries explode and scattered throughout the garage. Some of the batteries ricochet to the garage door, others were all the way inside the garage."
"#NegativePrices aren’t new, first occurring in Germany in 2008 as the nation ramped up wind and solar production.
But they were rare, until now.
Operators may be reluctant to make future investments because they’re not getting paid enough for the #CleanEnergy they’re churning out now.
So what’s the solution for producers and investors? The obvious one is to build more #batteries."
'What if a common element rather than scarce, expensive ones was a key component in electric car batteries?
A collaboration co-led by an Oregon State University chemistry researcher is hoping to spark a green battery revolution by showing that iron instead of cobalt and nickel can be used as a cathode material in lithium-ion batteries.'
Everyone is talking about building very large #batteries for energy storage, for when the sun doesn't shine or the wind doesn't blow. Turns out, that is the most expensive solution. There are faster solutions that yield money.
"Lovins and many other #EnergyEfficiency experts have spent decades pointing out that an integrated system approach that focuses as much or more on consumption than supply will be so much cheaper than the current approach focused on supply."
@CelloMomOnCars one of the cheapest is being done in Finland storing energy as heat in sand, which is cheap, easy to obtain and has few environmental downsides.
As you say, most current utility batteries are for frequency stabilisation., and it's perfect for that. But the storage capacity is really too small to cover, say, an extended outage, never mind seasonal storage.
Natron Energy, a pioneer in sodium-ion battery technology, has officially commenced mass production of its lithium-free sodium batteries in its Holland, Michigan facility. Offering an alternative energy storage solution with benefits such as faster cycling, longer lifespan, and safer usage compared to lithium-ion batteries.
"Lithium-ion battery prices have declined from USD 1,400 per kilowatt-hour in 2010 to less than USD 140 per kilowatt-hour in 2023, one of the fastest cost declines of any energy technology ever, as a result of progress in research and development and economies of scale in manufacturing."
Remember: fossil fuel companies want people to focus on what uses#energy so we don't talk about the supply side.
They benefit from #environmentalists spending time and energy bickering with one another about whether AI uses too much #electricity, whether to support more #nuclear plants, whether we should mine more #lithium to have grid scale #batteries, and so forth.
That doesn't mean we can't talk about these things, but be #mindful where you spend your energy.
What happens when people complain about energy costs? We need drastic reductions in energy use and, implicitly, in production. How many even know what "Cuba's Special Period" was?
The point of understanding the demand side is to get onboard with drastically reducing that to match the drastic reduction in production based on fossil fuels. If production halts without that, what do you think happens - based on contemporary history?
With this catalytic funding, our small collaboration to develop an open-source flow battery for stationary energy storage can further develop. We're planning on finalizing our small-scale benchtop kit (for R&D/educational use) before going to a larger cell design.
Very grateful for their support and belief in the project.