Everybody Needs Storage

The biggest challenge to integrating renewable energy into the power grid is intermittency. Even in the blowingest locations, wind power will only turn turbines and make electricity about one third of the time. Solar power can be steady and predictable in sunny climates, but it doesn’t work at night. Even a full moon will not generate electricity.

Useless At Night

Because of this problem of intermittent power generation, different storage mechanisms for renewable electricity have been developed and are being tested. But one storage system that may eventually turn out to be the most effective, is already here, out in the driveway.

It’s sitting there, minding its own business, not looking to change the world, but eventually it may become the most useful mechanism for renewable energy storage. It’s the family car.

Scenario 1: Your iPhone beeps you on the beach in Maui to let you know that your pre-set low price for electricity from the grid has been hit. You go “Cool. That wind must really be blowing strong back home  ;0) ” and you tell the iPhone to let the charger in your garage start downloading electricity from the grid at the low low price to charge your car’s lithium battery. The battery will be topped up when you get back from your vacation.

Scenario 2 : Your car is sitting in the garage with the battery topped up. It's January and minus plenty outside. All of a sudden there is a power failure. You have a choice. You can pack the family in the car and drive over to the nearest motel with power, or you can connect your car battery to your home and run the furnace and other essentials off the car battery until power from the grid is restored.

Storage That Keeps Going And Going

These kinds of pipe dreams are beginning to gel into reality. Two partnerships have been formed recently between electric car companies and solar power installers. These joint ventures point the way to the kinds of storage arrangements that may arise in the future.

SolarCity is a San Mateo California based solar installer that is growing fast. The company has operations in fourteen states. SolarCity has a full service approach to solar projects – design, permitting, installation and financing.  

About a year ago, the company teamed with electric car manufacturer Tesla to offer a solar installation package that combines solar panels for electricity generation and Tesla lithium ion batteries for storing the power. The combined package gets an incentive from the Pacific Gas and Electric utility under California’s Self Generation Incentive Program.

In addition to the incentive from California, the two companies hope that the bundled system of solar panels and batteries for storage will qualify for the US federal government’s Investment Tax Credit of 30 %. The combination of the state and federal incentives would make these systems relatively affordable. The lithium batteries are still quite expensive, but the benefit of having a back-up power system in case of a blackout is worth the cost for some people.

With huge budget deficits, government incentives are looking tenuous. Without incentives the storage system would cost considerably more. Now if the batteries were in a car, and served a dual purpose of storing power AND a means of transportation, that would make the combined system of solar panels and storage more compelling – though it would remove the basis for the California incentive.

On April 26, SolarCity announced that the company will be offering stock in an IPO as soon as they get clearance from the SEC. The market being as sour as it is now, SolarCity may decide to wait awhile before selling its stock. We’ll see.

A second car/solar partnership has recently been announced – this one between BMW and Real Goods Solar. Real Goods is a big solar installer in the US that we have mentioned in previous editions of the Green Miner.   This JV has a different approach. 

BMW will be leasing its new electric vehicle – the ActiveE - in various markets in the US that have lots of early adopters – primarily east coast and west coast. The lease price of the ActiveE is a $2250 down payment and $499 per month .

BMW ActiveE (Battery Included)

The JV with Real Goods will make lessees of the ActiveE in five states eligible for discounts if they purchase a solar power system from Real Goods.

In this partnership Real Goods provides the design, permitting, installation and monitoring of the solar power systems. The company is also providing financing deals that will allow consumers to get started with no money down for the system.

It’s an interesting marketing strategy, and hopefully will help sell some BMW electric cars and Real Goods solar systems.

One problem with these bundles is that solar power production occurs during daylight hours when most people are at work. In many cases electric cars will take commuters to the office and will not be plugged in at their garage at home during daylight hours. The commuting lifestyle cancels out, to some degree, the usefulness of an electric car battery as a storage device for power produced by home solar panels.

That is, unless the electric car is the second vehicle in the household that is usually at home, and could be plugged in to the panels during the day. Also, solar panel canopies are already being built over parking lots in sunny locations. These panels can either deliver power to the grid, or make electricity to charge cars in the lot while employees are at work.  So no matter where the car is parked, it will be able to serve as a storage mechanism.

These are still fledgling steps, but these companies are learning how to walk. They are showing how the massive battery capacity of electric vehicles, combined with intermittent renewable power generation will be a powerful combination.  Like a breathing mechanism – inhaling energy and then storing and distributing it, the lungs and the blood of the new renewable energy infrastructure.