Slashdot Mirror
Florida Utility To Close Two Natural Gas Plants, Build World's Largest Solar Battery System (electrek.co)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Electrek: Florida Power & Light has joined the race to build the world's largest solar battery storage system, announcing plans for its massive Manatee Energy Storage Center. The utility plans to build a 409 MW/900 MWh battery, to be powered by an existing FPL solar plant in Manatee County, Florida. It will begin serving customers in 2021. FPL says the battery system will be able to power 329,000 homes for two hours. For comparison, FPL notes the battery system is equivalent to 100 million iPhone batteries, or 300 million AA batteries. The system will be used in periods of high demand. The utility company also said that it will accelerate the retirement of two natural gas facilities at a nearby power plant. "FPL says the project will save customers more than $100 million while eliminating more than 1 million tons of carbon emissions, though no cost estimates for the project were disclosed," reports Electrek.
And while the Manatee Energy Storage Center is projected to be the "world's largest solar-powered battery storage system," it will have some competition from Texas where there are plans to build a 495 MW battery storage system that would be paired with an equivalent 495 MW solar farm in Borden County, Texas. It too is due to come online in 2021.
And while the Manatee Energy Storage Center is projected to be the "world's largest solar-powered battery storage system," it will have some competition from Texas where there are plans to build a 495 MW battery storage system that would be paired with an equivalent 495 MW solar farm in Borden County, Texas. It too is due to come online in 2021.
South Australian grid using wind mills widely separated was the first one to go in with a 50 MW system. It stabilized the grid and flattened the spot market prices so much they saved millions of dollars. Every dollar saved by the utility is a dollar NOT EARNED by gas powered plants. The ROI on natural gas plants are going to take a serious rework, they are losing juicy profits in the spot markets.
Now, Florida. Cost of storage batteries is falling so rapidly, it is like the micro chip revolution in computing. There is a Moore's Law for batteries, with a time period of about 7 years.
The neck of the famous "duck curve" is after sunset in CA. Solar has stopped, but a/c load is yet to peak. That one hour after sunset is the last critical piece needed for solar to become totally effective against natural gas. It is at hand. It is very exciting for the renewable energy fans.
Some of the gas plants operating in the peak load are "quick response" gas turbine plants. Their quick response is still measured in tens of minutes. The batteries are responding in milliseconds. The key thing about spot market electricity is, the price can go negative. If the gas plant is producing power and the grid could not absorb it they need to pay someone to take their power. The gas plant will not throttle down for several minutes. Who can absorb that power and get paid? The Batteries! Once the battery systems reach a critical mass, all natural gas fired power will be sold at long term pre negotiated fixed contract prices. Not the spot market. This will seriously change the ROI calculations of these plants that were already built. I am expecting the owners of these plants to cry uncle and come with hat in hand asking for "relief" from the utility rate payers.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
First of all, is it true there's only the equivalent of three AA batteries in an iPhone?
Yes, it is true. A typical alkaline AA battery has up to 2800 mAh capacity. Of course, this is at 1.5V, so the power capacity is around 4.2 Wh. So 3 of them would be around 12.6 Wh. A, iPhone Xs Max has a 3174 mAh battery, at about 4.2V. So around 12.6 Wh. So yes, about the same capacity.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Now Hydrogen cars are the solution!
A hydrogen car has an electric drivetrain, a small battery, a fuel cell and a hydrogen tank.
A battery electric car (BEV) has an electric drivetrain and a big battery.
Hydrogen cars are losing the battle against BEVs for the following reasons:
1. The fuel cell and hydrogen tank are not needed in a BEV so this cost and mass are avoided. Instead a BEV is dependent on deploying a battery with a high storage capability (up to 100kWh) with a high power output.
2. A BEV will have a better 0 to 60 MPH rating than a hydrogen car because the fuel cell cannot provide the needed high power output for fast acceleration. Hydrogen cars use a small battery to supply power during periods of high power demand. As battery technology improves, the hydrogen car becomes nearer to being a pure BEV which increases the risk of the fuel cell and hydrogen tank being redundant.
3. A BEV can be charged from anywhere there is a suitable power socket including a domestic house. A hydrogen car requires a hydrogen refuelling station which are rare. Therefore, BEVs already have a better charging infrastructure than hydrogen refuelling stations.
4. Hydrogen needs to be compressed which takes energy and also the hydrogen tank must be designed to be safe during car crashes. BEVs can catch fire in a car crash due to the battery being damaged, however, the probability of a BEV catching fire is less than the probability of an ICE car catching fire.
5. Hydrogen takes energy to be created such as via electrolysis. This energy reduces the overall efficiency of a hydrogen car. If water is used to generate hydrogen using electrolysis then a source of water is needed which will have an environmental impact. Hydrogen can also be generated from industrial fossil fuel processes but this hydrogen would need to be transported to the hydrogen refuelling stations so having an environmental impact.
6. Only a handful of car manufacturers are building hydrogen fuel cell cars and these cars have a very small share of the electric car market. The race to hydrogen fuel cell cars has already been lost to BEVs.
7. There is a race in the electric semi-tractor market between hydrogen fuel cell and BEV. This market has not yet decided which technology will win. Hydrogen may get a foothold in this market because sending freight travels along defined routes so only a few hydrogen refuelling stations are needed to support a freight route. But on the other hand, battery technology is continuing to improve which could eliminate the fuel cell.
The reason people stay with the coal, natural gas, and fossil fuels is COST! Oh electric cars? Yeah you recharge them from what? an outlet? Where is IT getting it's electricity. Oh yeah form one of those big bad coal, natural gas or fossil fuel electric plants. So tell me how they are saving the environment?
The accuracy of this claim depends on which country you are in. The biggest market per capita for electric cars is Norway where the electricity grid is 98% hydro-electric. Therefore, this claim fails for Norway. In France the electricity grid is 75% Nuclear and so your claim is also invalid for France. Renewable energy deployment in Europe is increasing each year which means your claim becomes more inaccurate each year. There are countries in Europe such as Poland that have a high percentage of electricity generated from coal but even for Poland it is better to generate the pollution at the rural coal fired power station than in the cities where the population lives. Therefore, electric cars will still benefit countries that use coal as pollution from ICE cars in cities will be reduced.